Some Floridians have still not gotten any payments from the $900 billion relief package that Congress passed on Dec. 22.
It provides $600 stimulus checks to Americans and weekly $300 supplemental unemployment pay for 11 weeks. Nearly 1 million claimants are now able to claim weeks again and, many residents reported on social media that they’d received their first $300 payment. But only individuals who had not exhausted the programs they were on before they expired have been so lucky, and those who had used them up are still waiting.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando, said she hopes a bill she’s introduced to reform Florida’s unemployment system will fix some of the problems plaguing the system.
In addition to increasing maximum benefits from $275 to $500 per week and allowing Floridians to stay on unemployment for not just 12 but 26 weeks.
Her proposal would require the state to establish a Reemployment Assistance Office that would annually review the unemployment assistance process, and impose a three-week deadline for the DEO to process applications.
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