TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A little more than 6% of the more than 650,000 confirmed claims for unemployment in Florida have been paid since coronavirus concerns started shutting down businesses across the state a month ago, state officials said Monday.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said on its website that as of Sunday almost 40,200 claims worth almost $60 million had been paid, out of almost 652,200 confirmed claims filed.
Of the confirmed claims, more than 162,000 had been processed.
Many of the state’s hundreds of thousands of the newly jobless from the coronavirus have reported problems when filing applications for unemployment benefits with the state’s economic development agency or getting help from hotlines. They’ve had their online applications disappear in front of their eyes when the computer refreshes or they’ve been bumped out of the system while filling out forms, forcing them to start over.
Florida’s unemployment system actually has received more than 1.5 million submitted claims, but many of those were the same claims that had been filed twice or three times using different methods because of the difficulties in submitting claims.
