Among the problems Floridians have reported when it comes to filing for unemployment benefits is the need to recertify their status every two weeks to verify that they still need help, even as the state’s system is encumbered with a massive influx of applications due to the coronavirus.
On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he issued an executive order that will temporarily suspend that part of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s unemployment application process in hopes of alleviating some of the stress on the system.
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The governor said right now, his goal is to get money to Floridians as quickly as possible and he’s willing to remove certain red tape in order to do that.
“This will hopefully free up some more space in order to move more claims through. It’s not a silver bullet, there’s a bunch of moving pieces here, but I do think that it will help,” DeSantis said.
Since Florida started seeing the negative impact of shut down businesses and halted tourism in mid-March, a total of 33,623 residents have received unemployment payments, according to the governor.
Still, countless News 6 viewers have reported difficulties applying for help much less actually receiving money.
Department of Management Services Secretary John Satter was appointed on Wednesday to oversee the DEO and make improvements that will allow more cash to be distributed.
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"Ultimately, we need to get people paid,” DeSantis said.
When asked about how many unprocessed applications need to be sorted through, Satter estimated “about 80 plus thousand" -- but that’s only the backlog of people who were required to recertify every two weeks.
Concrete figures on the total number of backlogged applications have not been released.
Those same Floridians who are repeatedly struggling to obtain unemployment benefits are also wondering when they’ll be able to return to their normal jobs and their normal paychecks.
The governor doesn’t currently have an answer for when that will happen but said he hopes to have a plan for “phase two” of the pandemic in place by next week.
That could involve a tiered approach to opening businesses and putting in place certain precautions, such as health screenings and reduced capacity.
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“Obviously you’re not going to go right in to having mass gatherings or some of those other things,” DeSantis said.
He hopes contact tracing and expanded testing could reduce the risk in the community when the time comes to resume usual operations.
When the first locations start to open, the process will likely be gradual and somewhat limited but the idea is that openings could occur on a larger-scale if no spike in COVID-19 cases is detected.
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