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WATCH: Florida lawmakers and DEO official hold town hall to answer your questions on unemployment

Posted at 4:04 PM, Apr 30, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-30 20:01:04-04

Thursday night may be an opportunity for Floridians to get questions answered when it comes to unemployment.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, who represents Pinellas County, teamed up with Sen. Jason Pizzo, who represents District 38 in South Florida, and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s (DEO) Jonathan Satter for a town hall Q&A session.

The state’s unemployment system has confused many Floridians about if and when they’ll be getting their state benefits.

Sen. Pizzo spoke on a conference call earlier Thursday about the information he and other lawmakers have been receiving from the state on the state’s unemployment system.

He says the system has been changing frequently but says politicians on both sides of the aisle share frustrations over the system, CONNECT.

We all share constituents that are desperate, who have food insecurity, housing insecurity,” Sen. Pizzo said. “We have different things working at different times. We have a track for reopening, which may not be in-line with where we are not being caught up with unemployment and we need to get those things to run parallel to each other.”

Florida’s jobless claims rose by more than 325,000 people this week, the largest in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And yet, according to the state’s dashboard, the number of claims processed has not gone up significantly the last 24 hours.

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WHAT IF I APPLIED WITH A PAPER FORM?

Sen. Lori Berman, from District 31, says she was told there is a way to check your status if you sent in a paper application. For those waiting to hear back on their application, you can visit, http://Floridajobs.org/RAapplication

Once you're there, you can register, click on "create claim," and type in your social security number. If your paper application has been entered into the system, you should receive a popup notification with the date.

“We don’t know if it’s really happening or not as everyone said, if the paper applications are actually being taken care of. It’s quite sad that we had to resort to paper applications in the first plac," said Sen. Berman.