TAMPA, Fla. — Federal benefits are officially over for out-of-work Floridians who are still collecting unemployment benefits. That means the extra $300 a week is no more.
Brenda Peters is excited to get back to work and no longer deal with CONNECT and the DEO.
“I like to have something to do, I don’t like just sitting around the house ya know? It’s boring,” she said with a laugh.
She was furloughed last year and says her job has called her back in next week.
“I reported that I was returning back to work July 6, but now it says on my claim that there’s an issue,” she said.
She fears her account will be on hold and the three weeks she has left to claim will never be paid to her. That’s because after reporting her return-to-work, her claim now says “pending issue awaiting adjudication determination.”
“It’s like I’m getting in trouble for reporting that I’m going back to work,” she said.
We reached out to the DEO and handed over her information. Officials say they will pass it on to a team member. She hopes it’s resolved soon so she can pay her bills.
“It’s been a hard year, yeah it’s been a hard year but thankfully I was just scraping by, you know just barely but I was able to hold onto my house,” she said. “I know unfortunately there are other people that didn’t have that luck and lost everything they owned.”
Other folks have told ABC Action News they’re still having troubles reporting their work searches.
The DEO launched a help center but, you can only enter your work searches into that site if the DEO has directly contacted you.
We’ve asked the DEO what people should do if they haven’t had any correspondence from the DEO, we’re waiting to hear back.
