At the start of the pandemic, when stimulus checks were being sent out and people were getting laid off, News 6 investigative reporter Mike Holfeld came up with the idea to do a weekly series about how people can better manage their budgets.
He planned to share advice from financial advisers, but found out soon after that thousands of unemployed Floridians weren’t even getting their unemployment checks from the state. He and his photographer have been working now for about two years helping those people get the benefits they deserve.
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When it comes to Making Ends Meet, it’s only Holfeld you see in on your TV screen or mobile device, but it’s really a team effort. Photographer Robert Breuer works alongside Holfeld, getting results for struggling families across Central Florida.
News 6 Insider Crystal Moyer sat down with Breuer to talk about what goes on behind the scenes of Make Ends Meet, the weekly segment exposing a broken state unemployment system overwhelmed by the spike in claims due to the pandemic, leaving thousands without the benefits they desperately need.
“Some of these people were spending hours on the phone trying to reach someone and couldn’t get through. They tried on the website, but it would crash. So they would reach out to us, News 6 and lawmakers,” Breuer said.
Nicole Finn was one of those people. The single mom living in Melbourne was laid off from her job due to the pandemic, and Holfeld covered her story in July of 2020, after her food stamps were cut. The Department of Economic Opportunity claimed she was receiving state and federal benefits, but Holfeld found that she wasn’t receiving a dime.
The story was posted online and on YouTube, gaining more than 117,000 views within a matter of days.
“The story was titled ‘Melbourne woman loses food stamps, blames DEO,’” Breuer said. “As you can imagine, it wasn’t a good look for the DEO and they, to their credit, reached out to us saying they wanted her information to try to help her.”
Thousands of emails and calls poured in to News 6 from people claiming similar issues, saying that their unemployment checks were on hold for weeks or even months. The Make Ends Meet team began working with the DEO to try and make things right.
“It’s heartbreaking because they tell you stories about how they’re going to lose their car or home, and it also makes me angry because it’s the same problem over and over. When are they going to fix it?” Breuer said.
Breuer said these stories uncovered bigger problems with the online unemployment system.
“Some people were sent checks with the wrong names. Some were listed as incarcerated or documented as working for a made-up company. You can’t make this stuff up,” Breuer said. “Not only were people not getting their money, thousands of people were getting money that weren’t supposed to be getting money. Fraudsters were scamming the system and that’s really frustrating.”
Breuer said he and Holfeld would often get frustrated with the amount of people waiting for their benefits.
“We would vent to each other like a married couple, but he never gives up. Holfeld is tenacious,” Breuer said. “He had been doing investigative reporting for the last 20 years at this station, and 14 years before in Detroit. It was just second nature to him. If he found that there was a problem and people were being unfairly treated, he wanted to expose it and fix it if he could and get results.”
Through the relationship Holfeld has built with the DEO, the Make Ends Meet team had been able to recover about $2 million in benefits for Central Floridians.
“It feels great, I’m proud of what we’ve done. But to be honest, I wish we didn’t have to do it. I wish it never happened,” Breuer said. “My ultimate hope is that people will learn from what we’re reporting, and solve the issues on their own. We want to help the most amount of people get the benefits they deserve.”
News 6 will be airing a one-hour Make Ends Meet special Saturday night following the SEC Football Championship game. Holfeld speaks directly with a DEO workforce deputy to get to the bottom of the backlog of benefits and gets an inside look at what’s planned for the DEO system in 2022. During the special, you’ll also hear from the many families who got results from the Make Ends Meet team.