There were still 35,960 new claims for unemployment assistance in Florida last week. That’s 36,000 new claims eight months after the pandemic struck.
And while it has dropped a bit from the week before, likely because of the reopening of businesses, South Florida is looking at another possible spike of COVID19 cases in the next six to 12 weeks, experts have said. It’s likely those numbers go up quickly again.
So, why isn’t the online application system fixed? It’s not like we don’t have the technology. It’s not like there wasn’t time or interest.
Noooooo. Despite being the worst in the nation, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature voted against convening a special session in May to address the unemployment system issues in the state.
House Speaker Jose Oliva said we could handle it. That things are going to get better. That’s because he was still getting paid. Meanwhile, it took people like Maria of Doral until August — and more than 15 calls later — to start getting her benefits deposited into her account.
She gets the maximum benefits, which is $275 a week, which she really can’t live on. She is grateful for the regular food distribution sites.
A group of Democrat legislators want to change that.
State Sens. Jose Javier Rodriguez — who has been front and center on the unemployment system mess — and Annette Taddeo are among the sponsors of a bill, still in draft, that would not only raise the amount of weekly benefits and the number of weeks unemployed Floridians are eligible, it would also include benefits for self-employed and freelance workers, who have not always gotten the benefits, even in the pandemic.
Maximum weekly benefits would increase from $275 — which is even under minimum wage for a full time worker — to $500 per week. Minimum benefits — currently at $32 a week — would go up to $100 a week.
Most importantly, especially in the wake of the disastrous pandemic performance, the bill establishes a “Reemployment Assistance Ombudsman Office “to identify procedural hurdles relating to 11the reemployment assistance process, to identify inefficiencies in the administration of the department’s functions under this chapter and to identify improvements in assistance provided by the department in assisting individuals seeking benefits.”
What a smart idea. Don’t we all wish we already had something like that?
The GOP leadership should have made it a priority and called for the special session to address what has become an urgent issue to thousands of Floridians. And one would think they would have.
After all, it’s a serious problem Republicans own in an election year. And voters who got the runaround and are trying to live off $1,100 a month might (read: hopefully) remember.
Florida’s unemployment system still broken as COVID numbers rise again added by Ladra on
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