Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Provides Reemployment Assistance Update – September 18

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) issued reemployment assistance updates on the Reemployment Assistance (RA) Claims Dashboard. As of September 17, DEO has paid 1,986,571 claimants a total of $16.4 billion ($16,419,950,438). More than 3.7 million (3,769,954) unique claims have been processed, representing 99.1% of unique claims submitted. 

UPDATES:

• The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity remains committed to providing eligible Floridians the benefits they are owed as quickly as possible.
• Extended Benefits: Due to the unforeseen public health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19, multiple benefit programs have been developed to provide benefits for Floridians in need, including Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Additionally, due to the drastic increase in the Florida unemployment rate in early 2020, Extended Benefits was triggered for the first time since 2009. 
• Extended Benefits is a federal program implemented by the state. Extended Benefits authorizes up-to an additional 6 weeks of benefits to eligible individuals who have exhausted Reemployment Assistance benefits during periods of high unemployment.
• The Department is working diligently to stand up the Extended Benefits program as quickly as possible. The Department anticipates having the Extended Benefits application completed and ready for Floridians in December.
• Floridians who have exhausted their state Reemployment Assistance and their Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits and may be eligible for Extended Benefits will receive the opportunity to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Individuals should review the application for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and apply to determine if they are eligible.
• Once Extended Benefits is available in the CONNECT system, the Department will do continued outreach to those individuals to ensure they are receiving benefits from the appropriate program.
• Click here to review all of the Florida Reemployment Assistance benefit programs.
• Additional Weeks: Each year, the number of weeks for state Reemployment Assistance is calculated based on the average unemployment rate for the most recent third calendar year quarter. After the September 2020 unemployment rate is released in October, the Department will be able to determine if additional weeks will be added to the current 12 week benefit duration for state Reemployment Assistance. Additional weeks would go into effect in January 2021, based on the average unemployment rate for the third calendar quarter of 2020 and will apply to any new state Reemployment Assistance claims filed in 2021.