JACKSONVILLE, Fla — You can call them glitches, errors or systemic issues, but there is no doubt problems with CONNECT have wrongly deemed thousands of Floridians ineligible for state benefits. But the state has yet to acknowledge it.
Carolann McClymont has worked as a retail supervisor for the past eight years, overseeing bridal registry. She is a W2 employee, a Florida resident who should have quite obviously been eligible to receive state unemployment benefits, called Reemployment Assistance.
McClymont was furloughed from her job at the end of March and started applying for benefits soon after. It took her two days, but she was finally able to submit her claim through CONNECT.
"I heard nothing," she said. "And then on the 27th of April, myself along with 250,000 other hard-working Floridians were determined 'ineligible.'"
Immediately, there was confusion for McClymont. She had never even considered a scenario in which she would not qualify for state benefits in a state where she has lived and worked full-time for years.
"It wakes you up at night going through your mind. Did I put a number in the wrong place? Did I answer a question incorrectly? What did I do? That's just how it starts," McClymont said. "You just think you did and you start asking other people in the same situation 'Did you do this? Did you do that?'"
McClymont told First Coast News she never received any notification from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO) informing her why she was "ineligible."
She said she was only able to find out about how to view the screen where she saw the "zeroed out" wages from someone in a Facebook group she is a part of.
She listed out the following steps to be able to view the same screen in CONNECT:
- Go to Claimant Home Page
- Click on the button on the left-hand side of the screen that says "Determinations, Pending Issue and Decision Summary"
- Mark the "Appeals" view, and click "Active" under the column that says "Monetary Determination"
- You will see a link that says "View Determination." Click that
- Download the letter that should have been sent to you by FDEO
- If your wage and employer information is gone, McClymont said to go back, answer the questions asked and hit update. Then, click the button that says "Request for Consideration." She said she got an error message with a phone number to call, but nobody picks up
Meanwhile, a First Coast News investigation uncovered that this has been an issue for some time. A call-taker we spoke with said she saw that the problem lies in how CONNECT communicates with Florida's wage verification system, called the System for Unified Taxation (SUNTAX).
The call taker said a myriad of problems could lead to a claimant's wages being "zeroed out," an issue she sees regularly.
FDEO has not confirmed any issues with the system, and as we have previously reported, call takers hired for the department were instructed to not ever use the word "glitch."
"It's so frustrating. At this point, I have not paid my mortgage for May, and June is questionable. I've seen zero dollars from this," McClymont said. "And I'm a full-time employee!"
Some suggestions if you are continuing to have trouble with the Unemployment Maze.
Reach out to the Governor via Twitter @GovRonDeSantis or email GovernorRon.Desantis@eog.myflorida.com
Contact your lawmakers and let them know your concerns:
Add your name to this statewide registry of people with unemployment claims issues:
RELATED: Unemployment Maze: Here's what you should do next if you were deemed 'ineligible' for state benefits