Florida

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: Nearly 98% of eligible unemployment applicants paid

FLORIDA — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that nearly 1 million Floridians have received unemployment checks.

But, Action News Jax continues to hear from dozens of locals who are having issues with the state's application process.

DeSantis said more applications have been processed in the last 10 weeks than in the previous five years in the state.

Preschool teacher Heather Harkness can't wait to get back to her students at T's Learning Center in Jacksonville, which closed its doors during the pandemic.

Harkness said she was furloughed in March and has been trying to collect unemployment ever since.

“I check it every day. It just says, ‘pending, pending, pending,” Harkness said.

Harkness said she was later declared ineligible but can't get an explanation as to why.

“It’s been very frustrating, very frustrating,” Harkness said. “The fact that you can’t get the information. You can’t get answers, so I have no idea what they’re doing.”

DeSantis said people have been denied for reasons like incomplete applications or their identity can't be confirmed.

He was joined by Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter.

DeSantis said the site is still a work in progress, but nearly 98-percent of those eligible have been paid a total sum of about $2.7 billion.

“If you go through and you apply, and you’re valid and you’re eligible, as of right now, about 97-percent of those folks have received at least one payment,” DeSantis said. “And that’s a heck of a lot better than it was six weeks ago.”