GLASGOW, Ky. — Thirteen years after she left Western Kentucky University with an undergraduate degree, Tracy Hays of Glasgow is going back for her Master’s Degree in social work, all while trying to juggle two jobs and two kids in the middle of a pandemic.

She says she’s just trying to make her situation better.

“Because I’m struggling to pay for my children on the wages that I make,” Hays said. “I don’t get child support. I rarely get it, and what I’m doing is just not enough.”

When the pandemic started, Hays balanced two jobs working as a merchandiser, meaning she helps organize floor sets for certain products at stores.

“I was changing magazine logos. I was straightening their coloring book section. And I was merchandising a CBD floor stand,” Hays said, adding a majority of her work at the time was with makeup.

With personal protective equipment (PPE) in short supply and the early panic of the pandemic setting in, Hays decided the jobs were too dangerous, and she says both of her employers indicated they would let her stay home. She also lived with her mother at the time and didn’t want to expose her to the virus.

Around the same time, March 25, Gov. Andy Beshear announced expanded unemployment benefits to more groups of people.

“Anyone who has had to leave their job because of quarantine or paid leave now qualifies for unemployment in Kentucky,” Beshear said during his update that day. “This means that so many of you who are out there who were worried are now able to file, and we want you to.”

Hays said she had a reasonable risk of exposure at her job, and going along with the governor’s advice at the time, she thought it was OK to stay home and file for unemployment.

In May though, after receiving both state and federal pandemic unemployment benefits for eight weeks, she received a call from the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission, saying she might have to pay that money back.

“Honestly, I had to pull over because it was just pretty much like he was attacking me,” Hays said. “This pandemic was no fault of my own. It’s not like I decided all of a sudden, well, I’m not going to go to work.”

The governor’s office said guidance changed at the federal level in April regarding people who quarantined voluntarily, so many like Hays were told they were overpaid.

Hays appealed the decision to the state and lost, so now she has filed a lawsuit against the state and the employer who challenged her claim.

“I feel like it’s kinda like I’m being gaslighted,” Hays said. “I’m starting to feel like, am I crazy? Did I really do this stuff correctly? Because I did what I was told.”

Senate Republicans held a press conference last week criticizing Beshear for several issues, including the overpayment problem, and Beshear said he’s open to working with them on it.

“We have asked for a waiver from the federal government on this issue. They have at least suggested they won’t give it, but we went ahead and put it in writing,” Beshear said Monday. “Yes, we can’t simply waive it as an executive branch, but if the legislative branch does it, I am certainly for it.”

A spokesman for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet said more information about how many people were affected by the error will be discussed Thursday during the governor’s coronavirus update.