Beginning today, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) will provide daily updates on the efforts made to address the challenges to Florida’s Reemployment Assistance program in response to COVID-19. This includes a new State Reemployment Assistance Claims Dashboard that will be updated daily to reflect the total number of Reemployment Assistance Claims submitted, verified, processed, and paid.

“We understand the challenges to the CONNECT system have only added to the stress on Florida families, and my number one goal is to ensure Floridians in need of reemployment assistance get paid, quickly. This will start with complete transparency, efficiently streamlining the reemployment assistance process, waiving all red tape and ensuring hurting Florida families have the aid they need to get through COVID-19,” said Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter.

State Reemployment Assistance Claims Dashboard
The State Reemployment Assistance Claims Dashboard will be available here and updated daily to reflect the following information:

Reemployment Assistance Claims Paid
From Sunday, March 15 to Sunday, April 19, DEO has made 170,407 payments to Floridians in Reemployment Assistance benefits totaling $59,928,939. This includes 40,193 individual Floridians who applied for Reemployment Assistance benefits after March 15. Over the last two weeks, 23,762 checks for $600 have been mailed to Floridians for their benefits available through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act. These checks were provided by paper to ensure they were distributed as quickly as possible. Floridians who received their $600 check will receive their state benefits for Reemployment Assistance via direct deposit or prepaid debit card based on their selection made. DEO remains committed to getting benefits out to eligible Floridians as quickly as possible.

Reemployment Assistance Claims Processed
From Sunday, March 15 – Sunday, April 19, 2020, 162,039 claims have received a monetary determination. This means that a decision has been made on whether the claimant is monetarily eligible to receive Reemployment Assistance benefits and what the amount of their weekly benefits will be.

Reemployment Assistance Claims Verification
From Sunday, March 15 – Sunday, April 19, 2020, 649,314 claims are currently being verified through the four-step verification process.This means that an individual’s identity is being verified, DEO is checking their wages in Florida and other states and a fraud prevention check is being run on the claim.

Reemployment Assistance Initial Claims Received
DEO is seeing historic increases in Floridians filing for Reemployment Assistance and has received 1,533,723 applications for Reemployment Assistance from March 15 through Sunday, April 19. This number includes multiple duplicates and triplicates due to many individuals filing directly in CONNECT, online and by paper. We are going through the process of identifying duplicates and triplicates; and currently have 652,191 confirmed unique claims of the total claims submitted.

*Florida Reemployment Assistance claim numbers are not official until the U.S. Department of Labor releases them each Thursday at 8:30 a.m.

Technology Enhancements
Over the weekend, DEO conducted necessary upgrades to enhance the performance capability of CONNECT. These upgrades are allowing the system to process claims faster so that individuals filing for Reemployment Assistance can be paid as soon as possible.  DEO will be conducting nightly maintenance to the CONNECT system to help with processing claims. CONNECT will only be available from 8 am – 7:59 pm daily. Importantly, this will not affect individuals that are filing a new claim. Individuals can file a new claim 24 hours a day, seven days per week, please click here.

Waiving Red Tape
At the Direction of Governor DeSantis, Secretary Satter is working with the United States Department of Labor to identify any regulatory burdens that can be waived to ensure that claims are processed and paid quickly. Additionally, Governor DeSantis has suspended the bi-weekly reporting requirement. This means individuals do not have to log into CONNECT every two weeks to claim your weeks of reemployment assistance.

CARES Act Update
The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provides unemployment benefits to those that may not otherwise be eligible for regular Reemployment Assistance benefits. This includes individuals who are self-employed or independent contractors. DEO will provide more information on PUA and how to apply in the coming week.

How to Apply
DEO has a mobile-friendly online application for individuals filing a new Reemployment Assistance claim available at www.FloridaJobs.org/RAApplication. Click here to read more.

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