FORT MYERS, Fla. — Filing for unemployment has been a difficult task for many right now, with long call wait times, and error messages on the Florida application webpage.
But there's hope.
The Department of Economic Opportunity launched a new website Wednesday for unemployment applications.
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About 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment in recent weeks.
State Representative Byron Donalds (R) says his office is helping with those applications. He’s also connecting his naples constituents with food pantries to hold them over until their checks come.
“What you’re really trying to do is just string together as many resources as you can to get them into the hands of the people who need them the most,” said Donalds.
State Representative Heather Fitzenhagen’s (R) office has been helping Fort Myers people complete their forms, too. She says she's glad the new website will allow DEO to process more applications faster, taking some pressure off of those who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"I know everyone was extremely frustrated, that the system was not able to handle the many many claims, that we had - it was an unprecedented amount of claims,"she said. "But, what the good news is, is that we were able to quickly fix it."
You can find the link to the new website here.
