ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal inquiry is raising questions about how states like Florida are calculating unemployment rates and distributing unemployment benefits.

The non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office published a more than 400-page report this week called “Urgent Actions Needed to Better Ensure an Effective Federal Response” to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The report, provided to multiple congressional committees, outlines the federal response to a number of issues impacting COVID-19. Those issues include supplies, testing, vaccines, and unemployment benefits.

In its review on unemployment, the agency takes issue with two points:

• How the U.S. Department of Labor is calculating unemployment numbers
• States paying minimum benefits instead of maximum benefits

Paying the Minimum

When Congress passed the $2 trillion CARES Act in March, it provided billions of dollars in federal unemployment aid to Americans through a series of different programs.

One of the programs is Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).

PUA provides up to 39 weeks of unemployment benefits to those who do not qualify for state benefits. Those include gig workers, self-employed, and small business owners like Vicki Kriner.

Kriner spent 10 years building her consulting business. When the pandemic forced Kriner to shut her business, she applied for PUA benefits.

Per the PUA guidelines, individuals can receive at minimum half the weekly rate as the state’s unemployment benefits and a maximum matching the state’s weekly max benefits.

In Florida, the max is $275 per week. The minimum PUA would be $137 per week.

“It’s been an absolute nightmare,” Kriner said.

The ‘nightmare’ Kriner describes is the endless circles of pursuit to get the full unemployment benefits she’s entitled to.

“I keep being told, ‘Yes, we’ve got this taken care of, you’re going to see it the next time you claim your money,'” Kriner said. “Then it goes back to what it was originally.”

It's been nearly nine months now and Kriner says she’s still fighting the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. She says she’s been paid the minimum amount of PUA benefits when she’s been approved for the full amount.

“I know I’m not the only person going through this, there is a lot of us out there,” Kriner said.

According to the GAO report, at least 27 of 41 responding states, including Florida, are paying minimum PUA benefits when GAO says the intent of Congress was for claimants to receive the maximum amount of benefits up front.

“States should pay the difference between the amount previous paid and the amount owed for all weeks of unemployment that an individual files during the Pandemic Assistance Period,” the GAO report states. “Based on DUA regulations, states must pay the full PUA benefit amount with the greatest promptness that is administratively feasible.”

The GAO report says states like Florida say they are paying the minimum amounts in an effort to pay claimants something right away while they verify that each claimant is entitled to more.

“In an effort to get eligible Floridians paid as quickly as possible, the department opted to begin paying the minimum amount for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims only,” a spokesperson for FL DEO told Spectrum News. “PUA claimants will receive the PUA weekly benefit amount until they provide proof of income that substantiates they are eligible for a higher weekly benefit amount.”

“It’s been one of the biggest struggles with DEO, to provide these folks with what’s called a wage redetermination, but there’s a major backlog,” said State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando. “The other concern is when folks try to fix this problem, their accounts go into ‘holds’ or ‘pending’ status. They’re not even getting that small amount of money they try to question it to get what they deserve.”

Differences in benefits are eligible for back payments, or retroactive payments. However, Eskamani says DEO needs to do more to either process claims to adhere to the intent of the federal unemployment programs.

“The crisis is deep and people are continuing to struggle, and especially here in Central Florida with furloughs turning into layoffs,” Eskamani said.

Accurate Unemployment Count

The inquiry also takes issue with how the U.S. Department of Labor is reporting overall unemployment numbers.

“The Department of Labor publishes the number of weeks of unemployment benefits claimed by individuals in each state during the period and reports the total count as the number of people claiming benefits nationwide,” the GAO report stated.

The report says while DOL has relied on this metric historically, “…the number of claims has not been an accurate estimate of the number of individuals claiming benefits during the pandemic because of backlogs in processing a historic volume of claims, among other data issues.”

The agency is pushing Department of Labor to revise how it counts and publishes unemployment data.

A spokesperson for DOL said the agency was making changes to weekly press releases to "clarify that weekly claims numbers do not represent individual claimants." The agency issued this statement to Spectrum News Friday:

"The GAO report referenced expressed concerns that the weekly continued claims numbers did not represent the number of individuals receiving benefits in any state.  In normal times, the continued claims numbers is a strong barometer of the number of individuals receiving unemployment benefits. The circumstances associated with COVID-19 has changed that due to states having significant backlogs as a result of the astronomical surge in claims load leading to retroactive payments that may be paid in the same week.  As a result, the Department is working to make changes to the language in the weekly press release to clarify that the weekly claims numbers do not represent individual claimants.  In addition, the Department is working to develop a new report to capture the unique number of individuals  filing for and receiving unemployment benefits."

In late November FL DEO reported the October unemployment rate statewide as 6.5%, an improvement from 6.9% the month before.

According to FL DEO, Osceola and Orange counties continue to rank among the top of the list in unemployment, where tourism anchors the local economy. In Central Florida, tens of thousands of workers continue to face furloughs and layoffs.

Walt Disney World laid off more than 6,000 non-union workers December 4. Another 11,350 Disney cast members in Central Florida will be laid off at the end of the month as part of a move that will lead to more than 18,000 total Central Florida job cuts at Disney by March.

The Walt Disney Company announced last month that it would lay off more than 32,000 total workers from its parks and entertainment division companywide.

When publishing state unemployment data, FL DEO says it uses a mixture of unemployment claims data and home surveys.

When asked about its confidence that state data is accurately reflecting Florida’s unemployment crisis, a spokesperson for FL DEO told Spectrum News:

“Adjustments are made according to USDOL guidance and reported to reflect the accurate number of claimants that are receiving benefits and are subject to revision.”

Fraud Protection

One argument for only paying minimum benefits without fully processing a claim is to protect against fraud.

According to the GAO report, the United States Secret Service opened at least 150 investigations into unemployment fraud in the U.S., resulting in at least seven arrests and the seizure of $6.4 million. These investigations also reportedly led to the return of $750 million in potentially fraudulent unemployment benefits.

The U.S. Secret Service nor the FBI would say whether any of their related investigations involve connections in Florida.

When asked about fraud in Florida, a spokesperson for FL DEO told Spectrum News:

“DEO works with USDOL, law enforcement agencies, and state attorneys to help combat fraud in the Unemployment Insurance program. Fraud investigations vary in scope and may impact several states and agencies.”

More Inquiries

The U.S. Government Accountability Office’s report to Congress was not produced in relation to separate calls for investigations into Florida’s unemployment troubles.

Several federal lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General to investigate delays in processing and paying out claims. The agency would not confirm or deny any such investigation to Spectrum News.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office has also refused to answer questions for nearly a month regarding the status of the governor’s ordered inquiry in to the state’s CONNECT unemployment system.

Last month, FL DEO’s newly appointed executive director, Dane Eagle, told Spectrum News the governor’s mandated inquiry is ongoing, as the agency itself commissioned a separate third party audit to review changes that are needed.

Eagle told Spectrum News while the agency has made progress in processing claims, he is aware of issues that still need to be resolved.

Extended Benefits

Among the issues FL DEO is still working to address is distributing "Extended Benefits".

Under federal law, states receive federal funding for extended benefits when certain unemployment level thresholds are surpassed.

For the first time since 2009, FL DEO will be providing up to six weeks of extended benefits to certain eligible claimants.

Individuals who exhausted Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) between June 7, 2020 and November 7, 2020 may be eligible for six weeks of extended benefits.

Those who exhausted PEUC benefits after November 7, 2020 will not qualify.

Eagle told Spectrum News last month that the agency is working to get the extended benefits program online as quickly as possible and expects individuals to be notified some time in December 2020.

Running Out

The pressure for many families is that bills are piling up as benefits are about to run out. Most have long exhausted Florida’s 12 weeks of benefits.

Current federal unemployment benefit programs are set to end December 26.

DeSantis this summer dismissed calls for a special session to extend state unemployment benefits.

In his first press conference in nearly a month, the governor told reporters this week that he believes Congress has the responsibility to pass extended unemployment benefits, saying the federal government and state of California are to blame for Florida’s unemployment crisis.

Florida state lawmakers are not scheduled to return to session until March 2021. While Republicans are calling for legislation to fix the long problem-plagued unemployment system itself, Democrats are pushing measures to extend benefits entirely.

A 2019 audit revealed state leaders had known for years about the likely failures of the CONNECT unemployment system. 

Politico was first to report that FL DEO’s now-former executive director, Ken Lawson, first raised red flags to DeSantis’s team when Lawson took over the agency in January 2017.

Democrats’s proposal includes extending benefits from $275 per week to $500 per week, and pushing the length from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.

Eskamani cautions, however, that any action the state legislature takes will come far too late for those trying to survive now.

Those like Kriner say the state needs to do more.

“If they were in the position that we are out here, you’d see things getting done,” Kriner said. “They’re not caring about what’s happening to hard working people…I don’t think they’re helping at all."