The cascade of problems facing applicants for unemployment compensation has left many Floridians questioning the priorities of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

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TALLAHASSEE — Robert Wehner’s world was turned upside down two weeks ago when Gov. Ron DeSantis banned dining-in at restaurants like the Punta Gorda place he’d worked as a waiter the past four years.

Wehner, 53, now has what amounts to a new full-time occupation. He spends every day trying to access unemployment benefits using the state’s malfunctioning online application system.

“This is the most frustrating thing that I’ve ever been through in my life,” Wehner said. “It just tells me the state of Florida doesn’t care about my situation.”

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The cascade of problems facing applicants for unemployment compensation has left many Floridians questioning Gov. Ron DeSantis’ priorities.

The governor finally promised steps late Thursday aimed at improving the benefits system, but only after giving it little attention during two weeks of unprecedented demand that left thousands shut out.

“This is a very, very top priority,” DeSantis said, adding that he was adding personnel to field calls and demanding improvements to the Department of Employment Opportunity’s online CONNECT system.

The governor has held often twice-daily briefings on the state’s fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus, with a focus on the state’s testing capabilities, the status of safety equipment, and on Wednesday, the statewide stay-at-home order issued after he rejected calls for such action from political leaders and public health experts for almost two weeks.

But rarely does the second-year governor mention efforts aimed at helping the vast numbers of paycheck-to-paycheck Floridians whose lives have been suddenly shattered.

“It does seem like assuring people who have lost jobs or may soon lose work that they will be able to stay in their homes. You’d think that would be a top priority for the state,” said Cindy Huddleston, a senior analyst with the Florida Policy Institute.

The most apparent hole in what passes for a state safety net is DEO’s CONNECT system, beset by problems since it was launched in 2013 under former Gov. Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator.

The DEO’s executive director, Ken Lawson, on Thursday apologized for the cascade of technical issues faced by thousands of Floridians, like Wehner, abruptly put out of work and desperately seeking benefits.

“I own this,” Lawson said in a video conference call in which he said that new, paper applications now would be accepted by his department.

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Wehner, a former chemist and pharmaceutical salesman, has been working as a waiter since moving to Florida from upstate New York in 2016. When DeSantis issued his order banning in-restaurant dining on March 20, Wehner was let go that afternoon.

“That was it. There was no more work,” said Wehner, who has since moved in with his mother in Venice.

One of his co-workers, Stacey Kline, managed to get on the state’s CONNECT unemployment system that day. But more than two weeks later, Kline’s application is still listed as “pending,” and she has been unable to get through to anyone at DEO to advise her.

“I tried getting online five times again this morning, and either got cut off or an error message,” Kline said Friday.

She also echoed what is likely the feeling of many Floridians suddenly set adrift.

“Working in a restaurant always seemed like a job that would always be there. Until now,” Kline said.

The Florida Policy Institute is among 45 advocacy organizations which recently wrote DeSantis with a wide-ranging series of steps the governor should take to help lower-income Floridians cope with the financial, health and social chaos created by the sweeping coronavirus.

Among them, DeSantis has said he will ease access for people seeking food through the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP).

But other proposals the governor received from advocates, including increasing temporary cash payments to those in need, using phone interviews to determine many state benefits and even expanding low-income Medicaid health coverage, have been largely ignored by the DeSantis administration.

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Other measures repeatedly called for in the past two weeks, including a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures and evictions, was only endorsed by DeSantis late Thursday. At least 34 states had already ordered the eviction ban, although Florida did have a restriction in place through mid-April that was directed not by the governor, but by the state Supreme Court.

DeSantis also hasn’t commented on calls for raising the level of Florida weekly unemployment benefits, now maxed-out at $275, among the lowest in the nation.

“We’re not trying to throw stones in a situation where everyone is scrambling,” said Coral Springs City Commissioner Joshua Simmons. “But it’s very frustrating to keep having to ask the governor of Florida to think of protecting all Floridians.”

The United Way’s ALICE report issued in 2018 showed that 46% of Florida households — more than 3.4 million — earn more than the federal poverty level, but not enough to meet the basic costs of living in their counties.

For a family of four, the poverty level is $24,300 a year, but in many Florida counties, the basic cost of living is at least double that.

ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, which describes many of the people who work in the tourism and service-industry economy paralyzed by the coronavirus.

While Florida’s CONNECT system has proved a disaster for many out of work, 348,511 claims were successfully submitted over the past two weeks, more than were filed for all of 2019.

But along with the low weekly payments, the 12 weeks unemployed Floridians can collect benefits matches North Carolina for the shortest in the country.

Changes made by Scott and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature in 2011 slashed payments and reduced the number of weeks people could qualify. It was estimated to save businesses $2.3 billion between 2011 and 2020, largely by reducing the number of people who successfully applied for unemployment benefits.

State auditors for years have found problems with the CONNECT system.

Still, state lawmakers and both the DeSantis and Scott administrations did nothing to attempt to correct these issues. Most involve technical glitches, computer crashes, a need for password resets and unresponsive phone help-lines that effectively keep people from completing applications.

But getting approved for state unemployment compensation is especially vital now.

The $2 trillion federal relief package signed into law by President Trump provides an additional $600 per week for four months — on top of state benefits — to those out of work, and extends Florida’s 12 weeks of benefits another 13 weeks.

The federal package also provides the $600 weekly payment to individuals who usually aren’t eligible for unemployment, including part-time employees, freelancers, independent contractors, gig workers and the self-employed.

Sherri Cohen, 64, a self-employed photographer from Sunrise, said she has been struggling for days to file a claim on the state’s CONNECT system.

When she finally managed to speak with a DEO representative, Cohen said she was told that her application would not be accepted — because she is ineligible for state benefits.

When Cohen explained about the federal law, the DEO representative repeated that her application would not be approved.

“While they try to figure all this out, how I am supposed to put food on the table and pay my bills?” Cohen said.

DeSantis has largely cast Florida’s problems as similar to that of many states dealing with a surge in unemployment applications. He called it a “shock to the system.”

But after two weeks of inaction, DeSantis echoed what many Floridians attempting to access benefits have said.

“Just to be able to talk to someone on the phone or to know that you submit something and it actually goes through … I think that will bring people a lot more peace of mind,” DeSantis said.