Coronavirus In Florida: 6% Of Florida Unemployment Claims Have Been Paid
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/AP) — More than 650,000 confirmed unemployment claims have been filed in Florida and a little more than 6-percent of those claims have been paid, state officials said Monday.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said on its website that as of Sunday almost 40,200 claims worth almost $60 million had been paid, out of almost 652,200 confirmed claims filed.
Of the confirmed claims, more than 162,000 had been processed.
The State Reemployment Assistance Claims Dashboard is available here and updated daily to reflect the total number of claims submitted, verified, processed, and paid.
Many of the state's hundreds of thousands of the newly jobless from the coronavirus have reported problems when filing applications for unemployment benefits with the state's economic development agency or getting help from hotlines.
They've had their online applications disappear in front of their eyes when the computer refreshes or they've been bumped out of the system while filling out forms, forcing them to start over.
"We understand the challenges to the CONNECT system have only added to the stress on Florida families, and my number one goal is to ensure Floridians in need of reemployment assistance get paid, quickly. This will start with complete transparency, efficiently streamlining the reemployment assistance process, waiving all red tape and ensuring hurting Florida families have the aid they need to get through COVID-19," said Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter.
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Over the weekend, DEO conducted necessary upgrades to enhance the performance capability of CONNECT. These upgrades are allowing the system to process claims faster so that individuals filing for Reemployment Assistance can be paid as soon as possible, according to state officials.
DEO will also conduct nightly maintenance to the CONNECT system to help with processing claims. CONNECT will only be available from 8 a.m. – 7:59 p.m. daily.
This maintenance will not affect individuals that are filing a new claim. Individuals can file a new claim 24 hours a day, seven days per week, by clicking here.
Florida's unemployment system actually has received more than 1.5 million submitted claims, but many of those were the same claims that had been filed twice or three times using different methods because of the difficulties in submitting claims.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
