CAPE CORAL, Fla – Many are struggling to file for unemployment benefits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governor said major improvements have been made to address the unprecedented call volume, wait times and slow website Floridians have been experiencing.
He said 250 additional staff members started taking your calls yesterday, and another 500 are expected to start doing so today.
You may recall last week we told you about the governor's executive order, which called in reinforcements from other government agencies to immediately train and help address the manpower issue the Department of Economic Opportunity is experiencing.
The state's Claims Assistance Center received 3.8 million calls last week. Many have been unable to get through by phone or online to file for unemployment.
In addition to those added staff members, DeSantis said the DEO has added 72-servers. This should help stop the site from crashing and allow it to run faster.
Despite improvements, many say they are still having issues filing.
The governor said the new system can now handle up to 120,000 simultaneous connections. Before these improvements, we were in the 40,000-60,000 range, so it should be running at least twice as fast.
However, if you're still experiencing issues, you can download a paper application here and send to:
Florida Department of Economic Opportunity
P.O. Box 5350
Tallahassee, FL 32314-5350
