E0734 
14 November 2007 

PAULA  BLEDSOE, 

v. 

DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF WORKFORCE SERVICES, 
APPELLEE 

AFFIRMED 

Paula Bledsoe did not correctly report her earnings during her 
unemployment benefits period. 

The Department of Workforce Services sent her a "Notice of Agency 
Determination, informing her that she had received benefits 
to which she was not entitled. Ark. Code Ann. § 1110519 (Supp. 2007). 
Three weeks later, the Department sent Bledsoe a “Notice of Fraud
Overpayment Determination,” stating that she must repay $5,682.00. 
Bledsoe tried to appeal both notices. 

The Board of Review concluded that Bledsoe was liable to repay 
$5,682.00 pursuant to Ark.Code Ann.§1110532(Supp.2007). 
Substantial evidence supports that finding. 

The record does not contain an appeal from the Notice of Agency Determination 
within twenty days of its mailing date. The statute mandates this deadline. 

At the hearing, Bledsoe’s lawyer said that he wrote a letter to the Appeal
Tribunal, but mailed that appeal to the Department of Workforce Services,
not the Appeal Tribunal as the notice instructed Bledsoe to do. Furthermore, 
in the letter, Bledsoe misstated the name of the notice from which she was 
appealing she indicated she was appealing the “Notice of Fraud Overpayment 
Determination.” On appeal to this court,Bledsoe does not argue that any
extraordinary circumstances prevented her from making a timely appeal of 
the Notice of Agency Determination to the Appeal Tribunal. Under the statute,
this is the only exception to the twenty day rule. 

We cannot reach the merits of the overpayment issue because Bledsoe did not 
timely appeal the Notice of Agency Determination. Bledsoe’s appellate 
brief focuses on whether she knowingly misrepresented her earnings. 
But that issue is not open for our review. 

Bledsoe’s only timely appeal was from the Notice of Fraud Overpayment 
Determination, which informed her that, because she had misreported 
her earnings,she had to repay $5,682.00. 
Bledsoe admitted at the hearing that she waspaid $5,682.00, 
and she must repay that amount.Ark.

We therefore affirm. 


GRIFFEN, 
J., 
agrees. 


PITTMAN, 
C.J., 
concurs.