Many in SWFL wait for benefits, while governor says unemployment improving

The state’s unemployment website continues to leave many people in the region and throughout the state frustrated and without any payments.

Florida says it has paid over 425,000 claims, which is about 45% of all claims.

We continue to look at what’s being done to get people their money.

A Tallahassee judge recently received 1,081 pages of emails that describe individual frustrations and struggles to file for unemployment in Florida. Two lawyers gave every page to the judge as part of their emergency motion demanding the state pay people now.

For his part, Gov. Ron DeSantis publicly said things are getting better Friday during a news conference. He said the unemployment system is on the right track.

“We need to do more, but we are much better than where we were a month ago,” DeSantis said.

Tell that to people such as Marie Hinds who applied March 25 and was found eligible but hasn’t seen a cent in state benefits because her weeks are “disqualified.”

“Not even one time have I been able to speak with a live person,” Hinds said.

Franklin Speed applied mid-March and was recently found ineligible, and he doesn’t know why. Now, he’s waiting to see if federal payments will come through for him, his wife and 5-year-old son.

“I just don’t understand why they’re taking so long,” Speed said. “It’s like me and my wife are going back and forth. Every day we talk about it. But like we don’t understand.”

When reporters pressed DeSantis about this, he pointed to the past.

“There’s gonna be a whole investigation that needs to be done about how the State of Florida could’ve paid 77 million for this thing,” DeSantis said. “However, many years ago they did.”

The lawyers responsible for two class actions on unemployment told us Thursday, that’s why they’re also suing the company that created the system in 2013.

“They are not going to get out from under this by washing their hands of it like Pontius Pilate while people are hanging on crosses,” attorney Gautier Kitchen said.

People right here in Southwest Florida are depending on relief that they don’t know will ever come.

“I’m a single mom, so it’s me and my daughter against the world,” Hinds said. “This is something that if I didn’t have a couple thousand dollars saved, now that money is running out.”

The company that designed the system says the lawsuit has no merit.

And the governor and Florida Department of Economic Opportunity told us they don’t comment on pending litigation.

“Feed myself, or pay all my rent,” Speed said. “It’s a tough choice to have to make.”

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