Florida Faced Shortcomings in Unemployment Benefits, But Has Bounced Back

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing lives across the country. We have new social and financial norms, not to mention the everyday fear that a loved one will come down with the virus.

Since we have a wide variety of professionals in our audience, Student Loan Planner® conducted two surveys, 30 days apart, to see how the pandemic is affecting our followers’ income levels and jobs, among other things.

Our second COVID-19 survey, conducted on April 17, 2020, received more than 3,100 responses with respondents from all 50 states. The reason for the second survey was to see what a difference, if any, 30 days made in our audience’s financial situations.

One stat stood out to us: 16% of Floridians said they lost their income completely. Only 1% reported receiving unemployment benefits.

Then we did a survey in May and found 8% of Floridians received unemployment.

Our most recent survey from August shows only 4% of Floridians receiving unemployment benefits. That suggests Florida initially struggled processing claims, improved, and now faces declining claims as of August 2020.

State By state Data Shines a Light on Just How Bad the Situation Was in Florida

Not surprisingly, residents in states that have been hit hard by the pandemic, including California, New York and New Jersey, increased in reports of income loss — as did Florida.

However, where Florida fell short in comparison to all 49 other states was its success in getting residents their unemployment benefits.

Looking at the state of Florida, 16% of respondents reported losing their income completely in April 2020. Of that 16%, only 1% reported that they were receiving unemployment benefits. This was by far the largest discrepancy reported by a state.

The survey suggests that California and New York were on top of the unemployment benefits situation. In fact, they’re doing such a good job New York is coming close to depleting their state unemployment trust fund:

• California: 17% reported a complete loss of income & 14% reported receiving unemployment benefits
• New York: 15% reported a complete loss of income & 13% reported receiving unemployment benefits

New Jersey and Washington, two states that have also been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, are not doing quite as well when it comes to getting people their unemployment benefits (although still nowhere near as bad as Florida):

• New Jersey: 22% reported a complete loss of income & 11% reported receiving unemployment benefits
• Washington: 18% reported a complete loss of income & 11% reported receiving unemployment benefits

Even Compared with Texas – A Similar State Legislatively – Florida Pales in Comparison

Texas, which is similar to Florida in that it is another no-income-tax state and is known for its conservative state level politics, is still doing much better than Florida in distributing unemployment benefits. 

In fact, The Dallas Morning News recently reported the state is loosening the rules on unemployment benefits after a spike in jobless claims. 

Texas is moving to make unemployment benefits easier and faster for the recently unemployed, waiving the “waiting week” provision that previously held back one week of benefits until after they found a new job or hit their benefits maximum.

The state is also suspending the requirement that unemployed individuals have to register with the state jobs site and show they are actively applying for new jobs.

In looking at the Texas respondents in our survey, 16% reported a complete loss of income & 8% reported receiving unemployment benefits. As a refresher, this compares to Florida’s 16% complete loss of income & only 1% received unemployment benefits.

Why is Florida So Far Behind Other States?

News of Florida’s shortcomings when it comes to getting unemployment benefits to its residents has been making waves in the media. Just this week, the Associated Press released an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor Data, finding that nearly 7 of every 8 Floridians who managed to file claims during the three weeks from mid-March to early April were waiting to have them processed — the worst rate in the country.

Additionally, The Miami Herald reported that out of 1.5 million unemployment claims filed, only 40,193 have been paid. This is very aligned with the data our survey unearthed. 

One question we asked survey respondents that proved to be very telling for Florida’s state unemployment office was “If you applied for unemployment, how much time have you spent on the phone waiting?”

Every Florida resident who called the state unemployment office reported at a least a 1 hour wait on the phone, the majority of whom reported they spent more than 3 hours waiting.

This could be why a frustrated Governor Ron DeSantis decided last week to put someone new in charge of fixing Florida’s unemployment system.

Frustrated that he wasn’t receiving basic information on claims paid — data that most state governors have been sharing publicly — DeSantis appointed Jonathan Satter, secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services, to fix the state’s overwhelmed system.

Florida leads the country in low income taxes, business climate, mortgage loan options, and days of sun. Luckily, they're getting their act together with unemployment insurance.