For some people, it has been months since they first applied for benefits.
Thierry Sleszynski, 72, says he applied back in March.
“I’ve been going at this since the middle of March. Two and a half months and still it’s like, it’s not working,” Sleszynski said.
He says despite submitting the required paperwork needed to qualify for Federal Pandemic Unemployment Benefits, the online system is showing incorrect income information. When he tries to resubmit the paperwork online he says the system crashes.
“I press the continue button and then it just bombs out, I get an error message saying something bad happened,” Sleszynski said.
He is just one of the many people still waiting to receive any Federal Benefits.
The latest numbers from the Department of Economic Opportunity show of the 597,533 people found ineligible for state unemployment benefits, only 145,236 people were found eligible for Federal PUA benefits. Of those, 113,188 claimants have started receiving payments.
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“They are saying of those people, three quarters of them are ineligible for state benefits, but also ineligible for federal benefits. That doesn’t make sense,” State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez said.
He says those running into delays getting their unemployment benefits should be persistent and continue to try.
“The money will not run out, the problem DEO has is not that we don’t have the money as a state, the problem they have is getting the money out,” Rodriguez said.
He suggests documenting your efforts to complete the application and to take screenshots of system errors you run into.
“I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I don’t get anywhere,” Sleszynski said.
Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the DEO to waive the work search requirement for claimants until June 13th, but you still need to answer the search questions in order for the system to process your claim.
