foreign for many people during the pandemic emergency covert relief money provided a crucial Lifeline during a tough economic time but now the state says it handed out millions of dollars to people it shouldn't have and they want it back when one Raleigh woman was asked to pay up she called Keeley instead [Music] do you feel at home here I do there's nothing quite like the Comforts of home cooking these two are the pear trees Elizabeth bramer's favorite dish pear pie I've been getting pears off of them eight years made right from the tree in front of her home a home she almost lost twice Bremer was one of the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who lost a steady paycheck at the start of the Pandemic those businesses shut down because of the pandemic I mean the whole world shut down for a while by the following year she was half a Year's worth of rent in debt and fear mounted we can't live here for free some relief or should we say hope the state administered federally funded hope program approved Elizabeth for 9 780 bucks I was like thank God you know maybe some of us won't be homeless eligible applicants could receive money for the housing program multiple times so when she received another check from legal aid for the same amount she didn't question it she was okay this is the other six months so again he put it in his rental account applied it to my rent we have documentation to prove all this and we went on about our lives until June of this year more than two years after her approval a state recovery team told Bremer she obtained the second check fraudulently it was a duplicate payment and they wanted that 9 780 bucks back nobody has nine thousand dollars to throw around Elizabeth tried to get more information and every time we would respond they would respond back with the exact same thing fed up she reached out to us and five on your side reached out to them within a few days Elizabeth was off the hook the repayment canceled she fears though she's far from the only person this has happened to if you've had any kind of problem with getting rental assistance and they're asking for you to pay it back please contact Kelly Arthur at WRAL the state list several reasons why they would ask for your money back including duplicate payments there's no appeal process for the Hope program once they've determined you owe but in Elizabeth's case they told us they re-reviewed it after we brought it to them and determined it wasn't a duplicate payment so this is why you really need to be careful with any Aid you receive keep notes in documentation and if you have a problem call us Keely Arthur five on your side