SARASOTA – Florida’s broken unemployment website is shutting down until Monday morning, as officials scramble to process the 1.8 million unemployment claims submitted.
The nightmare continues for Florida residents who have attempted to file for unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus pandemic. Friday morning anyone who attempted to file a claim or check the status of their benefits was met with a message stating the website won’t be accepting applications until Monday morning.
Florida State Representative Margaret Good continues to call for the Florida Legislature to move into a special session to fix the system.
“It’s completely unacceptable, I am angry that we are living in a state where people are out of work and cannot get the benefits they deserve,” said Good.
According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity a total of 1.8 million unemployment claims have been submitted. Of those claims only 218, 935 have been processed, leaving many Floridians unclear of when they will receive payments.
Karyn Naylor and Charles Brodzinski have been out of work since mid-March. Neither has been able to get far when trying to submit an application since March 20th. Naylor says without their unemployment benefits, they’re uncertain of how they’ll pay their bills for the next month.
“You know we live month to month, so right now we’re going beyond a month and we have nothing coming in,” said Naylor. “So besides the stimulus check, which we used to pay rent for April we’re kind of really waiting to see what’s happening.”
Naylor is self-employed and doesn’t qualify for the Payment Protection Program for her small business Euphoria Therapeutic Massage. Brodzinski, a bartender, has an underlying health condition and stays home as much as possible. He says he’s been given the run around when trying to get answers from the DEO.
“I don’t understand how the state of Florida being such a great state it is, taking so long to help out its citizens that’s what really – it irks me,” said Brodzinski.
DEO officials responded in a tweet “Last night, the Florida DEO had to make the tough, but smart decision to keep the CONNECT system offline until Monday morning, to follow our mission of paying Floridians as quickly [as] possible. It is not DOWN- it’s working hard to process applications so payments can be made quickly.” But according to a report from the Miami-Herald at the rate the state is processing claims, they won’t finish until 2021.
Rep. Good has begun a petition to have Florida’s taxpayers recieve the money they are owed. Congressman James Buchanan says he spoke to DEO Legislative Director Gabe Peters to help Floridians get their money.
“We have a $77 million system and clearly it has not lived up to that,” said Buchanan.
As of Friday the DEO has paid $157 million to claimants however, federal data shows that Florida has processed claims slower than any other state.
