Gov. Says Florida’s Unemployment System Was Designed To Create ‘Pointless Roadblocks’

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen here in June, said this week that the state’s troubled unemployment portal was designed to discourage people applying for benefits. The portal launched in 2013, under then-Gov. Rick Scott.





Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images



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Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images



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In June, two top-ranking Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, called on the U.S. Department of Labor’s inspector general to investigate the state’s failure to provide payments to its out-of-work residents.

«While all states have seen record increases in the number of its residents applying for unemployment, the state of Florida’s performance has proved uniquely poor in its abject inability to assist millions of Florida residents who have applied for and continue to await unemployment benefits, the wrote.

NPR’s Greg Allen contributed to this report.


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• Ron DeSantis


• unemployment benefits


• Rick Scott


• Florida