In Florida, Only 1 In 8 Of The Unemployed Get Benefits
Credit: Zugrocker
September 22, 2015

Yet another reason not to vote for Republican governors. They consistently prioritize business at and stick it to regular workers:

Florida, more than nearly any other state, has made it more difficult for laid-off workers to apply and qualify for unemployment benefits, said the National Employment Project, an advocate for the unemployed, in a new report released Tuesday.

Only 12 percent of Florida's unemployed receive benefits compared with the national average of 27 percent. Florida's rate ties with South Carolina, for the lowest rate of all 53 states and jurisdictions administering unemployment insurance programs, the report says.

More than six in 10 Florida workers who apply for unemployment benefits are disqualified before ever receiving a single payment, the report says.

For Floridians who make it through the application process, only 39 percent receive a first payment – the second lowest level in the country, the report said. Only South Carolina is lower. Nationally, 68 percent of workers applying receive unemployment insurance benefits.

"A lot of the reason for the very low recipiency rate is you have lots of people being disqualified for reasons that look like they couldn't navigate some aspect of the online system," said George Wentworth, lawyer for the National Employment Law Project based in New York.

"Florida is spending a lot of resources disqualifying people," Wentworth said. Florida's unemployment system "really has become a game of 'gotcha'."

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