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Nationwide, a record-shattering 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment over the last week alone.
Skyrocketing unemployment claims are overloading the state’s already-broken online application system, and Floridians far and wide are complaining they can’t reach anyone by phone, either.
Nationwide, a record-shattering 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment over the last week alone, after President Trump signed into law a pandemic relief package expanding benefits for those financially affected by the Covid-19 crisis. To obtain that federal aid, workers must go through their own state’s unemployment program.
Cindy Kirby, a 61-year-old Lake City resident, spent the better part of the last several days trying to submit an application on Florida’s unemployment website. Just after she entered the pin number she was forced to create, the site crashed.
“It’ll just throw you completely off, make you start over,” Kirby said.
She tried calling the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, which oversees the state’s unemployment system.
“And then it just says all circuits are busy,” she said. “I tried calling like 37 times within a 15-minute period, and you can’t even leave a message.”
Nobody with the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis would answer the phone, either, she said.
Kirby said she is still more fortunate than other applicants. She continues to work a bit while her husband receives retirement checks from his time working for a railroad company, she said.
“I’m not concerned for me, I’m concerned for all Americans,” she said. “That’s what upsets me — and something needs to be done.”
Kirby’s experience wasn’t an outlier.
During the span of a single week in March, an unprecedented 74,000 Floridians applied for unemployment benefits through the state.
Droves of Floridians have called attention to the issue by all means possible, whether it be sharing their experiences on social media or contacting a reporter at the local newspaper.
Official government Facebook profiles are being flooded with complaints about the unemployment website, and several major media outlets have picked up on the story.
The added strain on the state’s unemployment system didn’t help, but the problem didn’t originate with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gov. DeSantis was warned about the broken website a year ago.
In a March 2019 report, the state’s auditor general raised alarms about a number of severe glitches plaguing the online application system. And the problem wasn’t even new then, according to the findings — previous audits from as far back as 2015 pointed out the same issues, urging state officials to fix them.
But the website remains defective, meaning residents of the Sunshine State could miss out on benefits included in the federal relief package, potentially hamstringing Florida’s ability to recover from the economic side of the crisis.
DeSantis on Thursday issued an order beefing up staffing at the Department of Economic Opportunity and providing the agency with funds for additional equipment to handle the flood of applications. In addition, paper applications for unemployment benefits will also be allowed.