Approved Florida jobless can’t collect unemployment benefits

This, at a time of crisis, is more dehumanizing than mere words can say. Listen, in his voice and unfiltered, to a restaurant manager’s ordeal to collect unemployment. He’s a father of two and had a promising career in a national chain before the coronavirus pandemic devastated one of Florida’s top industries.

He lost his paycheck from one day to the next a month ago — sent home without any severance.

“We were cleared to request benefits from unemployment Monday.

We were approved but have to go in and request funds weekly.

We have until April 16th to do so. But the website keeps crashing.

We did everything right and cannot [collect] because the website keeps crashing.

We woke up in the middle of the night over a week ago, followed all directions and applied — and now we cannot even request funds because the website doesn’t work. A nightmare.

We have tried every day and the site crashes every time.

Now, I am starting to truly worry about how we are gonna get by.

They say there are resources available.

We tried at 10:30 p.m. last night and the website still crashed.

We are going to try waking up in the middle of the night again tonight.

It’s f----d up!

Now I’m starting to panic. I have been out of work since March 18.

This sh-t sucks.”

SITUATION NEEDS FIXING

Gov. Ron DeSantis, we implore you, do more to fix this situation.

Even after being approved for unemployment benefits, Florida’s jobless can’t collect what is legally due them. Never mind in a timely fashion.

You must either waive by executive order the requirement that people make requests weekly on the problematic website in order to get their checks — or you must provide an accessible, easy way that they can do so.

NEED RETROACTIVITY

You must approve, also by executive order, unemployment benefits due to COVID-19 retroactive to the date the applicant lost the job.

And then, you must insist on speedy delivery of those checks!

With some 500,000 Floridians out of work your tightwad, dribs and drabs way of handling this crisis isn’t cutting it for people who have real problems making ends meet — and are likely to be in the same situation for months.

There are discrepancies between what you and your staff are saying you’re doing to improve accessibility — and what desperate people are actually experiencing.

Besides the persistent problems people are having in reaching the website, the process itself and the requirements to qualify for benefits remain cumbersome, as they were in precoronavirus times.

People are telling me it has taken them two hours to complete an application the state claims should take 30 to 60 minutes. No wonder others can’t get in even with the fixes the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity says are being made.

Enabling a paper application helps some people, but it does nothing to bring agility to the process.

The launching of a mobile-friendly online application could alleviate things for newcomers to the unemployment process. But for those who started trying to claim unemployment three weeks ago — and are still navigating it without results — it doesn’t do a thing.

Two people — both laid off from the same restaurant — had totally different experiences applying.

One had to download documents to support the claim; another didn’t.

Both had to apply for re-employment as well — the website gave them no other choice — unlike what is being touted as a change now. Neither has received an unemployment check from the state despite being out of a job for almost a month now.

LOWEST LEVEL OF BENEFITS

All this effort, all the angst for a measly $275 a week at most, as Florida has one of the lowest unemployment benefits in the nation — and only allows a 12week period to receive them.

Governor, you know you inherited from (now senator) Rick Scott an unemployment system created to discourage people from tapping into it. A system that operates on the false assumption that people don’t want to work.

Your failure to move quickly on delivering relief via unemployment claims is making his revolting legacy yours, too.

This restaurant worker I know well, a hard worker, has been getting by putting his groceries on a credit card that’s accumulating interest. That’s no healthy way to live.

He finally got into the website around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday to make his check request.

But that’s not the end of the uncertainty.

“It allows you to request funds for the weeks you were out of work but it still says ‘pending,’ ” he said. “I don’t even know for sure if I’m going to get it.”

The only glimmer of hope is that he wasted no time calling a previous employer and applying for a job in a major retailer’s warehouse. It pays a lot less than he was making as a manager and it will be physically harder work, starting at the bottom again.

But he can’t wait to be employed again.

Floridians like him deserve not only better unemployment compensation but more respect from the state.

Fabiola Santiago: 305-376-3469, @fabiolasantiago