FEMA shifts direction on 'improper' disaster payments

Last spring, the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent out letters telling 180 Iowans to return payments made to them after natural disasters in 2008 and 2010.

Those included 40 applicants whom FEMA said improperly received $229,057 in benefits in Cedar Rapids and Palo and seven applicants whom the agency said improperly received $61,433 in benefits in Iowa City and Coralville after the June 2008 floods.

On Monday, FEMA will send out new letters to those people, and to some 89,000 people nationwide, informing them that they can seek a waiver of FEMA's earlier "recoupment" effort, the agency's regional office in Kansas City, Mo., reported on Thursday. The new letters are going to those involved in declared disasters between Aug. 28, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2010.

The waiver letters come after Congressional action in December 2011 setting out conditions to allow the debt waivers.

To approve a waiver, FEMA first must conclude that the improper payment did not involve fraud, presentation of false claim or misrepresentation; that the payment was made due to a FEMA error; and collection on the debt would be unfair or cause serious financial hardship.

Some of those who received letters in Iowa last spring already may have successfully appealed the earlier request to repay money. Others may have moved and will not receive the waiver letter, and they are asked to call FEMA's Recoupment Helpline at 1-800-816-1122 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.