Since mid-March, Floridians unable to work due to the pandemic have struggled to receive unemployment benefits through the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity website CONNECT or to speak to a human due to the volume of calls and applications. The state has paid more than $579 million in unemployment, more than half funded by federal pandemic aid. “The PEUC program provides up to 13 weeks of Reemployment Assistance benefits to individuals who have exhausted regular unemployment benefits under state or federal law or have no rights to regular unemployment benefits under state or federal law. He said it could be another five to seven days before those applications can be processed through the DEO CONNECT system. More than 266,000 people were declared ineligible and may qualify for federal benefits, according to the DEO dashboard.