Sara Girard

A major insurance company wants to cut back on covering visits to the emergency room, but pushback has led UnitedHealthcare to announce they will delay the new policy until after the pandemic is declared over. If UnitedHealthcare goes through with it post-pandemic, people on a Medicare Advantage Plan or Medicaid would not be affected. The […]

It’s deja vu. Complaints are rolling in again about the state’s unemployment website. One person tweeted, “got bounced out and looped, no exaggeration, 50-plus times.” Another said, “get halfway done then kicks me back to the screen before logging in. for 4 hours now.” Despite more people going back to work, problems with the website […]

Southwest Florida has an unwanted title. We’re one of the worst places to find affordable housing in the country. The pandemic only made it worse, exposing low wages, raising home prices, and cutting funding. For many people, their reality is having to choose between paying rent, paying for food, paying to get to work. Drew […]

The clock is ticking for anyone collecting unemployment: soon you’ll be required to search for work to keep your benefits. And while businesses say they’re struggling to hire because no one wants to work, in reality, unemployed people say the job market isn’t as great as it seems. Many people say it’s a lose-lose situation. […]

A man accused of terrorizing a community and going on a killing spree in a Southwest Florida community is asking to get his case dropped. Wade Wison was indicted by a grand jury for the first-degree murder of two women in 2019, and on Wednesday he filed a petition for writ of mandamus without his […]

What’s the future of unemployment in Florida? After a year of glitches, holds, and unanswered calls, the head of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity says it’s better prepared now more than ever to fix the system. But when will we see changes? While the volume of concerns has decreased, WINK News still gets emails, tweets, […]

The state wants Floridians to get back to work. Florida Department of Economic Opportunity launched the “Return to work” initiative Wednesday, encouraging people who are collecting unemployment benefits to reenter the workforce. DEO Secretary Dane Eagle said some companies struggling to hire call this the “new pandemic.” When the pandemic began, the governor waived the […]

The cost of caring for your kids is anything but affordable for many families, and the pandemic made the nation’s already troubled child care system even worse. Around the country, surveys show 56% of child care providers say they’re losing money every day they stay open and 46% of parents say their current child care […]

Losing your job can feel like losing your identity. When you first meet someone, oftentimes your first question is, “What do you do?” Although the jobless rate has dropped by more than half since May of last year, the effects of unemployment and underemployment are weighing heavily on people all across the country. Researchers from […]

Scammers are filing claims under the names and information of Floridians who have collected unemployment, even if they didn’t give it to them directly. Kate Larsen from Naples told us she accidentally gave out her personal information on a call she thought came from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. “I noticed that the phone […]