Nikki Fried: Florida failed the unemployed now 'giving up' on receiving owed benefits

The state failed jobless Floridians who are now giving up securing unemployment benefits missed because of the faulty state unemployment portal, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said.

Fried, the only Democratic member of the Cabinet, was the lone Cabinet member in the room for Thursday’s meeting, the first in months. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, the Commissioner said Floridians are frustrated with the unemployment system.

“They’re going back to work and putting their lives at risk because they can’t wait for not only the state’s unemployment system but also getting their federal dollars,” Fried said. “They don’t have a choice anymore but to go back to work. And they don’t have four to six hours every day to go onto the unemployment system to be waiting online to be talking to call center employees who are frustrated because they too don’t have the right answers to give.”

The CONNECT portal may have stabilized some, and Floridians have received $3.5 billion in unemployment benefits. Still, many Floridians are stuck with problems that can only be fixed manually by a Department of Economic Opportunity representative. But calls to the department’s service center can take hours to finally reach a representative, leading many still owed state and federal dollars to give up on the process.




https://floridapolitics.com/archives/336160-nikki-fried-florida-failed-the-unemployed-now-giving-up-on-receiving-owed-benefits