Florida pays too little unemployment too late. Lawmakers haven’t cared to fix it — so far | Opinion
Florida’s unemployment system was, at best, inadequate, and at worse, a rip-off, long before the coronavirus hit. The pandemic just threw a harsh spotlight on just how truly awful the system really is — over and beyond the creaky, cranky CONNECT website.
The upcoming legislative session, which begins March 2, presents the best chance to fix just about everything that has made the unemployment-insurance system a waste of time and effort for Floridians to use and a waste of taxpayers’ money that ultimately stiffs jobless residents. They get too little money for too short a time, and they have to wait an insultingly long time for the “honor.”
It’s no surprise, then, that a U.S. Department of Labor report ranks Florida 49th in the nation — second worst — at paying unemployment benefits on time. Hawaii spared Florida the indignity of coming in dead last.
The report found that only 36 percent of Florida residents who filed for benefits received their first payment within three weeks this year.
‘Designed to fail’
Yes, the pandemic threw the system a curve. But it was never a state-of-the-art system designed to handle a normal number of claims. Rather, it was cynically designed, under the Rick Scott administration, to fail potential recipients, to discourage them from seeking funds that rightfully were theirs. And the state paid $77 million — including a $14 million cost overrun — for this abomination.
The pandemic, and the crush of applicants in need, knocked the CONNECT website flat on its back, exposing all of the system’s flaws. Between April and June of this year, as the pandemic was gaining steam, the state was paying only 28 percent of claims on time.
But the pandemic never was the start of the system’s problems. Here’s what we said in April: “Then, too, there’s the matter of HB 7005, an odious piece of legislation that Scott enthusiastically signed into law in 2011. The bill capped unemployment benefits at $275 a week and reduced the duration of benefits from 26 weeks to a maximum of 12. According to FileUnemployment.org, Florida is almost at the bottom nationally in what it pays for unemployment insurance compensation. Only Alabama, Louisiana, Arizona and Mississippi pay less.”
How to fix it
It seems like the state’s Republican leaders, who have allowed the coronavirus to run amok and won’t let local leaders come to constituents’ rescue, just don’t like the people they’re in office to serve — at least not the ones who can’t afford to pay lobbyists or make hefty campaign contributions. The restaurant dishwasher, the hotel housekeeper, the Amazon delivery guy? Meh.
But we’re encouraged by the news that state Sen. Jeff Brandes will be serving on a newly created committee to address pandemic-related challenges in the state. Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican, brings a practical and caring approach to his role, having championed inmates’ rights in the past. He knows the unemployment system is untenable. Our hope is that he can get his party peers to see the high cost of failing the people who need help.
He can turn to the Florida Policy Institute’s “4 Steps to Fix Florida’s Broken Unemployment Insurance Program” to bolster the argument that we, too, have made: Increase the amounts of unemployment payments; increase their duration; increase the percentage of people eligible; and fully fund the system. There’s no savings in leaving thousands of Floridians broke and unable to participate in the economy.
