TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In an apparent attempt to provide more transparency in how it is handling unemployment benefit claims, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity posted a new dashboard on its website Monday showing daily updates on the agency's progress.
That online dashboard can be found here. It’s also embedded below.
As of noon Monday, DEO said it has received more than 1.5 million claims for unemployment assistance since March 15. However, the agency cautions that many of those claims may be duplicates, since some people have filed multiple paper and online applications.
DEO had verified nearly 650,000 claims by Monday, the website showed.
The state agency has issued payments to a little more than 40,000 claimants, which is about 6% of the verified claims.
“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," Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter said in a news release announcing the new website dashboard. “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.”