JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Many Floridians battling the unemployment system are confused as the governor waived the work search requirement for claimants, but a work search requirement is still popping up while trying to claim weeks.
“I have to list five contacts, places I’m looking for work,” said Ilidia Debrito, who has spent hours filling out the form.
Ilidia is a seamstress at Nordstrom, and is ready to eventually be allowed back to work. She doesn’t want to search for another job when her job at Nordstrom will open up any day.
The Department of Economic Opportunity announced June 13 that the work search requirement has been postponed until July 4.
“If I don’t need to do this, why is the application requiring I do this,” Debrito asked.
This is a question Lora Ayers has been asking as well.
“You can’t get past anything unless you fill all of that out,” Ayers said.
So even though Ayers and Debrito aren’t looking for jobs and they’re waiting to go back to their old ones, they’re spending hours contacting employers to fulfill the requirement.
“Then it says okay, you have claimed your weeks,” Ayers said.
First Coast News asked DEO if this is a new glitch, but the department actually said “no” and showed us how to avoid the work search with one simple button.
In a long list of questions to claim weeks, one question alone will allow you to avoid all of this stress.
For the question, “Did you look for work,” click “no.”
Clicking “no” should skip the work search screen completely.
You can answer “no” through July 4 and still get benefits.
Even with this new information, these ladies are stressed. They say this simple step just goes to show how confusing this website and process is. There is rarely an agent available to answer their questions.
“You cannot report anything, and then they hang up on you,” Debrito said. “This is going to affect my health. If I keep thinking about this, it’s going to destroy my life.”