Governor DeSantis waives biweekly reporting requirement for unemployment recipients

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

Yesterday Governor DeSantis issued an executive order that temporarily waives the requirement that unemployment recipients document their efforts to find work.

Normally, once someone is receiving unemployment compensation, they must file a report every 2 weeks, documenting that they are “actively seeking work.” DeSantis says that it is unreasonable to think that people can just go get another job during the crisis, so that requirement is being waived.

This has the secondary effect of reducing the number of filings that state employees need to review, since the reports will not be piled on top of all the new claims. The requirement will be waived as long as the Public Health Emergency is in effect.

In a press conference this morning, DeSantis said that before the COVID-19 crisis, it was common for new claimants to wait 4-5 weeks to get their money, but “we’ve got to do better than that.” He said they are continuing to ramp up resources to handle the very high number of new claims, but it will take time. He also said that 100,000 checks went out this week, which is more than they’d sent to date in 2020. There were only about 350,000 claims in all of 2019.