Florida Lottery winners are being turned away from collecting their winnings because of problems involving the Department of Economic Opportunity.

Florida Democrats are condemning the Department’s actions and have unveiled their plan to fix the state’s unemployment system ahead of the 2021 legislative session. DEO won’t reveal how much money it incorrectly paid out, or how many people are being asked to pay back their unemployment benefits. “We’re trying to set the bar as to what we ought to do as a state with our unemployment system,” said State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez. The bill also requires DEO to make a determination on a person’s eligibility within three weeks of applying for unemployment and creates an ombudsman position at DEO, that would be responsible for streamlining the unemployment system. Despite a plague of issues at the start of the pandemic, DEO has paid more than $17 billion in unemployment this year.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Another round of $1,200 stimulus payments, federal unemployment relief and protection against evictions are some of the issues lawmakers are negotiating as part of the next federal stimulus package. Lydia Jones said every dollar from the unemployment checks she has received since losing her job in March has been accounted for. That extra $600 that she relied on from the federal government has ended. But studies show between 40% and 68% of people receiving unemployment benefits were making more with the extra $600 every two weeks than they were previously at work. Mnuchin has said another round of $1,200 stimulus payments could hit people’s bank accounts this month if a deal is reached.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Floridas unemployment system is once again in hot water after thousands of dollars were not deposited into peoples accounts because of what the Department of Economic Opportunity called technical issues.The DEO said it found two technology concerns that prevented people from getting their Federal Pandemic Unemployment compensation over the last few weeks. Thats $600 extra a week that unexpectedly stopped for some families that depend on that money. The Department of Economic Opportunity explained what went wrong:Individuals who requested that their claims be backdated were not included in recent payment files for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation payments. The department has identified these individuals and should have them paid their $600 federal payment within 5 business days.That technical problem cost Daphne Glenns family $1,800. Glenn said the federal money just stopped out of nowhere after May 19 and no one told her what happened.

The Department of Economic Opportunity confirmed 98 people were part of a data security incident. The same day that data security incident happened, an email went out to some filing for or receiving unemployment reading in part:The Florida Department of Economic opportunity has received your reemployment assistance claim application. News4Jax reached out to the DEO to see if this email was part of the data security incident. The DEO says the number one give away that an email is legitimate is the DEO uses a do not reply email address. One way to know if an email from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is legitimate

Published: May 20, 2020, 7:37 am Updated: May 20, 2020, 8:23 amJACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The phone number for unemployment benefits for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has received 50 million phone calls since March 15, according to Sec. Satter told News4Jax sister station WKMG in Orlando 1 million phone calls were placed to the hotline on Monday alone. He said the best time for someone to call about unemployment benefits is in the late afternoon. Anyone who needs to file for unemployment assistance in Florida can click on this link. “We have hundreds of people in different stages of training, so we can get those wait times down,” Satter said.