TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave an update Tuesday regarding Florida's progress in paying residents who filed for unemployment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeSantis maintained that most eligible Florida residents who filed their claims have been paid.
"The department has paid out more money in the last 10 weeks than it had in the previous five years combined," he said.
The governor said 468,000 residents were deemed ineligible for benefits. DeSantis said many were ineligible for a variety of reasons, including not filing properly, not fitting the unemployment criteria or filing more than one claim.
He also said solutions have been made to address common issues unemployed residents have coming across.
DeSantis said the following adjustments have been made in regards to people being unable to access the CONNECT system:
- Developed a mobile-friendly website
- Built an adapter to transfer data from the website to CONNECT
- Created paper application
- Arranged free printing and mailing of paper application with FedEx
- Offered additional areas to pick up and submit applications through CareerSource Florida and local governments
In regards to people not being able to call DEO for assistance, DeSantis said five customer service support centers with almost 6,000 trained customer service representatives have been created.
Work search requirement have also been suspended due to the pandemic's effect on the job market.
DeSantis also said to combat issues stemming from the system being overwhelmed, the bi-weekly recertification requirement has been suspended, 72 servers have been added and the system has received new hardware and software upgrades.