New head of DEO working to revamp unemployment system, promises change

There’s new oversight at the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity in an effort to revamp the unemployment system.

WINK News Investigative Reporter Sara Girard spoke with Sec. Jonathan Satter, the person put in charge of making sure people are getting the assistance they are applying for.

The governor asked Sec. Satter to get the results he wanted but wasn’t getting.

“Every morning I should know how many claims have been paid. Right now I can’t, it’s hard for me to even get those numbers and that’s unacceptable,” DeSantis said in a press conference on April 15, the same day he announced Satter’s new role.

WINK News Investigative Reporter Sara Girard asked: “What is it going to take to get to acceptable, and how long is that going to take?”

Satter: “The metric that we’re going to measure ourselves is how quickly we can pay Floridians.”

He also told WINK News he wants that to be no more than 15 days — application to check, which is what was ideal for the unemployment system before the pandemic.

“That’s when we’ll know we’ve succeeded. But until we get to that point, we are behind,” Satter said.

Tuesday afternoon, the DEO’s new online dashboard shows the state is still behind by a significant amount, with 668,000 claims submitted since March 15 and roughly 95,000 people paid.

Girard: “Florida is one of the slowest if not the slowest to get people their unemployment benefits in the country. What do you say that?”

Satter: “We’re going to bring that number up, I promise that. And quickly.”

That promise includes better communication with people like you.

“It’s just confusing. And then you can’t call anyone, there’s no point,” said Lizzie Blouir in an interview with WINK News in early April.