Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Local residents left jobless by the coronavirus outbreak and unable to apply for unemployment benefits either because they lack internet connectivity or found it near impossible to access the state's swamped website or its overwhelmed call center can now get printed copies of the application locally.
As of Wednesday afternoon, April 8, the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce has had the application forms available for pickup outside its door from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, along with accompanying postage-paid and pre-addressed envelopes to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO).
Individuals with internet connectivity, of course, can download the application simply by going to the CareerSource's website at careersourcenorthflorida.com/reemployment-assistance.
Diane Head, head of CareerSource, noted that the availability of the printed forms and pre-addressed and stamped envelopes were in response to the executive order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis late last week.
Head said once the form is mailed to the FDEO, applicants are supposed to receive a call from the department informing them that the application has been received and is being processed. Which means that the applicant’s information is being inputted into CONNECT, the state’s online system.
Head also noted that in light of the current situation, the requirement that applicants must seek work to qualify is being waived, as is the one-week wait period.
It was her hope, she said, that the availability of the printed form will alleviate some of the volume of calls that she and her staff have been fielding in recent weeks. However, she encourages anyone with questions or needing help on the form to call her office at (850) 973-9675.
Commissioner Betsy Bartfield, for her part, reiterated that any person who is experiencing a jam with the application process should contact Senator Bill Montford’s office, where an FDEO staffer will be present to help them navigate the system.
Barfield raised the issue about the difficulty that local individuals were having accessing the state’s unemployment website on Thursday, April 2. She expressed concern that given that many of the county’s residents lacked internet connectivity and the fact that applications for jobless benefits could only be done online, Jefferson County residents were essentially being left out in the cold.
At the time, Barfield noted that she had spoken with Montford’s office and staff and they had agreed to forward local residents’ information to the FDEO.
Inaccessibility to the FDEO’s website, however, wasn’t confined to Jefferson County residents alone. Which is what led to the Governor’s executive order on Thursday calling printed applications and the FDEO announcing late Friday that printed forms could be downloaded from its website and mailed to its Tallahassee headquarters.
According to news reports from across the state, the FDEO’s online jobless application process essentially crashed due to the surge of jobless applications that resulted from the shuttering of so many businesses because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Miami Herald reports that Florida officials were forced to revert to paper forms “because CONNECT is essentially broken,” with the website reportedly riddled with error messages and glitches caused in part by the increased demand. While the state’s call center, the intended backup to CONNECT, always was overwhelmed.
Critics note that the CONNECT website, launched by Gov. Rick Scott in 2013 at a cost of $77 million, has been plagued with problems since its inception. The state, meanwhile, did away with old-fashioned unemployment offices decades ago, with the website being the primary path for filing for benefits.
Florida unemployment benefits are reportedly capped at $275 weekly. However, a federal stimulus package that passed in response to the pandemic is supposed to add $600 a week to that amount.