Scott Powers
For the second straight day, Florida approved more than 10,000 new unemployment claims while rejecting practically none.
On Wednesday the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity approved 10,490 new unemployment claims filed by Floridians and rejected just 162, according to numbers released Thursday and compared with numbers the department released on Wednesday.
That marks the second consecutive day in which almost every application being reviewed got stamped with “approved,” following weeks in which the department followed a very different pattern. Through Monday, more than 40% of such claims were rejected as ineligible, and the department drew increasingly loud and harsh criticism and skepticism over what it was doing.
Florida now has received 2,030,958 claims since March 15, roughly the start of the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Of those, 916,0002 have been confirmed as unique, not duplicate applications from the same people, while the other million or so await sorting, according to the DEO’s Reemployment Assistance Claim Workflow dashboard. Of those confirmed as unique, 684,657 have been processed.
Of the processed claims through the end of Wednesday, 418,134 now have been approved, and 266,523 have been rejected because the department concluded the people filing the claims are somehow ineligible. The ineligibility portion had been running about 40.3% of processed claims through Monday, but has ticked down each of the past two days, as nearly all of newly-processed claims have been approved. That ineligible claims now represent 38.9% of all claims.
At the same time, the department has begun advising people that if their claims had been rejected for ineligibility, they should try to reapply.
There still are 231,345 applications that have been confirmed as unique but await in the in basket, as not yet processed, while Florida awaits verification of those claims. The number of those that have been red-flagged as potential fraud spiked dramatically overnight, to 89,143, up from 22,715 that were in the potential fraud queue on Tuesday, according to Wednesday’s report.
Florida now has sent unemployment compensation checks to 416,683 people, roughly 46% of the confirmed unique claims, but representing only about 21% of all applications the department has on hand.
Unemployed Floridians now have been paid $240 million in state reemployment assistance, and another $339 million in federal pandemic unemployment compensation. That’s a total of nearly $580 million in unemployment compensation.
4 comments
Mark L
April 30, 2020 at 4:52 pm
This is great but no one is getting thier back pay to the day they were let go. It’s all 1 week each week. Where is the back pay?. My wife and I are owed $7000 where is it? Why was it not sent with the initial check or direct deposit if they are going to give it to us?
Natalie
May 1, 2020 at 3:26 am
Fantastic for the people who saw the money.
Terrible for those who haven’t.
Most of us haven’t seen any money. Just because they deemed the applications eligible, doesn’t mean they have paid the unemployed.
This article is really putting a positive spin on a really shitty situation.
Tim Hickman
May 1, 2020 at 4:40 pm
Just fantastic.
i was deemed ineligible due to my wages Wednesday!
I’ve had one employer for 23-years.
I’ve worked in the sane place the whole time with over 125 people.
We all are without a job Due to covid-19 on 3/15/2020.
We have have a FB check in page for need & safety Check in.
I am the ONLY person ineligible.
Over 100 ppl got their first check/s today.
Everyone else except myself got APPROVED & will receive payments by Monday 5/4/2020.
I’ve also have yet to receive the $1200 stimulus check & I take care of a partner with cancer!
It’s r greenly hard to check into that FB page and realize I’m the only one in this situation.
I FEEL EMBARRASSED & I dint know what to do.
There is No-one at DEO to talk to. I’ve been on hold from opening to close since Wednesday 4/29/2020 & at close it just hangs up on you!
There’s no explanation on connect site & no where for me to file an appeal or to get help.
HELP!!!
Unemployed since 3/15/2020
Lessa A Thrun
May 2, 2020 at 1:12 pm
Florida unemployment is a joke! So many being left without answers or money.Every time you try to log on you get kicked off. Now I have to wait 72 hours to get told I’m not approved. So I can go though the next step. People were told to leave their jobs. Stay home. And they would be covered by unemployment. Now people have no money,some no jobs. Self employed getting hit bad by this. Sad our state is putting all us though this. And the Grant’s are just as big as joke. So sad.. wake up people.!!what’s wrong with this picture..
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