JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Losing a job is a crushing, anxiety-filled time for most people. But for Floridians seeking unemployment benefits, that stress is compounded by the failure of the state’s safety net.
More than 500,000 Floridians have lost their jobs in the past month. And while no system could anticipate the flood of new applicants, experts say the failures in Florida are baked into the system.
“It is completely insidious,” says Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project in Washington, D.C. “When the state emerged from the recession, there was huge pressure to cut benefits rather than raise taxes.”
The unemployment system rolled out in 2013 by former Gov. Rick Scott and backed by lawmakers since then was designed to save money.
The result was a combination of tactics, Evermore says, designed to cull the state’s unemployment rolls.
“The state deliberately made it hard to get benefits,” she says, including adding 45 math and English questions to the initial questionnaire to evaluate an applicant’s “skills” before they could even apply for help.
That rule was eventually dropped, but with the backing of state legislators, the benefit window was slashed from 26 to 12 weeks and capped at $275 a week – hundreds less than some states.
That amount will be augmented an additional $600 in federal aid, available through July 31, but that money also has to be accessed through the state system. Which, as anyone who’s used it will attest, is simply overwhelmed.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised the process will get easier. Last week he announced they had doubled the system’s server capacity to handle 120,000 simultaneous connections, and was training hundreds of state employees to work in the state’s call center.
“People were on this site and it was timing out,” DeSantis said. “People would go hours and hours upon end, and it was totally unacceptable. You have a single mother who no longer has a job, who has to worry about how the rent is going to be paid, how food is going to be put on the table. We want this system to be accessible.”
But more than a week later, the jobless are still stymied – and increasingly desperate. Evermore thinks that after years of ignoring failed audits and user complaints, the sheer number of angry constituents may finally force lawmakers to act.
“I think this is creating unprecedented pressure to fix the system,” she said.
As for those still trying to access benefits, Evermore says stick with it.
“This is a benefit they’ve earned ... It's going to be very difficult in Florida for people to get benefits, but people should keep trying," Evermore says. "You’ve earned this benefit. Congress decided to spend money so you can get enough income so you can be home and be safe -- and that’s what everyone should be doing.”