So in March 2020 my restaurant closed down, we got unemployment and months later they asked if I was going to come back. It was the height of the pandemic, but I said I didn’t know yet. I was living with my girlfriend who would bring groceries and things to her Immunocompromised sister every week, then I moved with my GF back home to take care of my family who is old and in bad health. They stopped paying me Unemployment in Feb 2021. Today I got a phone call from EDD saying my old restaurant is protesting those Unemployment claims and I assume want their money back. To make things more frustrating the lady on the phone was incredibly rude and obviously biased. She’d say things like “I worked in a restaurant for all of 2020, why wouldn’t you??” And I’d say “good for you, I personally have anxiety and hypochondria and didn’t want to serve 500 maskless people and put my loved ones at risk”
It was a very tense and uncomfortable phone call and now I’m panicking about it all. Unemployment basically saved my life, and now they want their money back?? I don’t have that money, I’m still trying to financially recover from the last two years. What am I supposed to do about this? Is this real or a scam? It felt like such a shakedown.