Woman balks at paying old $73 debt

A Massachusetts woman who got a bill for $73 from the state of New Jersey for a decades-old debt says she has no intention of paying.

Alice Mainville, of Amesbury, got a letter recently telling her she owes New Jersey's Department of Labor $73 because it gave her too much money in an unemployment check 35 years ago.

Mainville tells the Daily News of Newburyport she collected unemployment during a labor dispute at the bakery where she worked when she was 17.

Mainville, who moved to Massachusetts after high school, says she won't pay because New Jersey officials have not explained how they concluded she owes the money.

New Jersey Department of Labor spokeswoman Kerri Gatling says there is no bad debt "write-off" in unemployment insurance law.

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