Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Backlogs remain in jobless system
DeSantis dedicates more resources to unemployment
TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis is putting more people and computer servers behind the state’s troubled unemployment system, but hundreds of thousands of Floridians laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic could still see lengthy delays before getting benefits.
DeSantis said he added 72 servers, is transitioning 2,000 state employees from other departments to process claims and is hiring 750 more.
“We have all hands on deck now,” DeSantis said during a news conference Monday in the Capitol.
Ken Lawson, Department of Economic Opportunity executive director, said there were 562,000 applications between March 15 and Sunday – more than the 326,653 the agency received all last year. While some of those have been processed, that backlog must be cleared even as claimants continue to inundate the system.
Lawson said his goal is to process 80,000 claims by
the end of this week. Even if that happens, the state will still be taking in more applications than it is processing, adding to the backlog and stretching out the amount of time for the newly unemployed to receive benefits.
Despite the additional capacity of CONNECT and the employees being added to take calls and process claims, those trying to file claims are still encountering a broken system.
Steven Epstein works as a high school sports referee and has another job in the gig economy as well. Both sources of income have dried up amid the coronavirus response. He’s been trying to get through on CONNECT since last week and hasn’t been able to get through. His attempts to reach someone on the phone have also been futile.
“I [called] early this morning and either nothing happened, it didn’t even ring, or I got a busy signal or it rang and nobody picked up,” said Epstein, a Boca Raton resident.
As an independent contractor without a full-time job, Epstein is ineligible for benefits paid by the state but he could receive up to $600 per week from the federal government under the CARES Act, the federal stimulus signed into law by President Trump on March 27.
But the state is still reviewing federal guidelines for issuing those funds and hasn’t released them to anyone yet, so even those who successfully apply are only receiving state-level benefits, a maximum of $275 per week.
Lawson said DEO lawyers are poring over the guidelines from the U.S. Department of Labor and should be able to process the CARES Act funds for unemployment benefits by the end of the week. Until then, however, those eligible
only for federal benefits should wait to apply, he said.
Florida’s CONNECT system under DEO has been flagged by auditors for years, but problems continue to arise. DeSantis said a backup system that was supposed to kick in if the system failed never engaged, and DEO officials worked to get it connected by Sunday.
In addition to the 2,000 employees of other state agencies – many from the Department of Revenue and the Department of Management Services – who have been pulled in to help process claims, DEO is hiring more workers to handle the influx. About 250 started Monday after receiving training over the weekend, and another 500 are expected to start Tuesday.
DEO also signed a contract with Fanteuil, a call center, for $17.5 million, to handle the large jump in calls. According to the contract documents, DEO went from receiving about 25,000 calls per week to 224,272 for the week that ended March 21, and 864,313 for the week that ended March 28.
The 72 new servers were driven up from the State Logistics Response Center in Orlando to Tallahassee, adding to the original 10 that were trying to handle the historic increase. DeSantis aides said he wants to add 10 more servers to handle the expected increase in claims.
Sunday night alone, more than 62,000 Floridians filed claims.
The state unemployment system can now handle 120,000 individuals filing claims simultaneously, DeSantis said, up from about 40,000 to 60,000 last week.
DEO has been trying to add capacity and make changes to the system, but those efforts have led to the entire system being shut down, usually during the night or on the weekends, for hours at a time. The latest happened from 10 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday.
Lawson said the improvements will help but this week will be crucial to determine whether the steps they’ve taken are adequate.
“This is our test week to make sure what we’ve done, our improvements are holding,” Lawson said.
The pressure and frustration from constituents and lawmakers over the dysfunctional system has been mounting. Sen. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, called on Lawson to resign on Friday over the issue.
“I’m more concerned about people who’ve lost their job and putting money into their pocket than my job,” Lawson said when asked if he would resign. “My job right now is to do everything I can to make the system work. Anything else in the future I don’t care about.”
Epstein is still frustrated at being unable to successfully submit an application, but said he’s relieved DeSantis is finally making it a priority. He said he’ll likely have to tap into his savings if the delays continue.
“Obviously they’re overwhelmed in a way they never could’ve expected, but I also think that the infrastructure is probably dated (as is) the platform that they use to register online,” Epstein said.