JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Department of Economic Opportunity is asking lawmakers for millions to revamp the unemployment system to handle future disasters.
“Hundreds of thousands of users tried to access CONNECT which made it totally unavailable for use,” DEO director Dane Eagle said to a Senate committee Monday.
Eagle said the system failed Floridians after it wasn’t properly maintained since it was developed in 2013.
“I like to think of that is we were issued an iPhone in 2013, never did the updates or bother to get a new iPhone in the process and were still operating on older data,” Eagle said.
An independent investigation was ordered in 2020 to find the system’s flaws.
Key Findings:
- The Department continues to perform tirelessly to ensure benefits are provided to claimants.
- The CONNECT system was not built to process the volume of claims received during the pandemic.
- Substantial investments were made during 2020 to stabilize and scale out the system.
- Those investments resulted in necessary increases to annual RA IT base budget.
- Additional cloud migration investment is needed to realize performance and cost optimization.
- Software architecture investment is needed to enable timely implementation of user-focused services.
- Business Process Optimization (BPO) and user interface investment is necessary to streamline the user experience.
“We need to switch to cloud base,” said Florida Senator Jason Pizzo. “So as the initial expense may be very high, it also allows for scalability as we go.”
Eagle is requesting $244 million over the next five years. Of that, $72 million would go toward a brand new system, and $24 million would be allocated for maintenance.
Wade White, an unemployed and now homeless veteran, told lawmakers the system needs to be fixed from all angles, including its staff.
“This cloud based system," White said. "If it doesn’t have adequate human support to direct these issues, you have wasted more of our money, more of our time and more people will continue to suffer.”
Eagle is asking lawmakers to approve hiring another 435 employees.
There hasn’t been any indication on what will be approved.