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Nearly three hundred thousand unemployment claims were filed this week in Florida, bringing the total to one point eight million since the middle or March. More than 5haklf a million of the seven hundred thousand verified claims remain unpaid, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, three who haven’t gotten their check are going to court. 

Two restaurant workers, one from Tallahassee, the other from Citrus County and and a laid off Panama City airline worker, are suing the state, seeking to force it to pay their unemployment claims. Gautier Kitchen is one of their lawyers.

“They aren’t lazy. They’ve been forced out of work, guaranteed a social safety net that they paid into over the years, that has failed” says Kitchen.

In the Citrus County case, the complaint says his initial claim was deleted then wrongfully denied. The two other cases are labeled pending says their other attorney, Marie Mattox.

“And our intent is to get them money as quickly as possible so they can go buy groceries, but their medicines.”

We took the question of deleted claims to the man in charge. Jonathan Satter. He told us “I’m not sure how that could have happened.” We followed up:  “No glitches in the system?” His reply: “Not that I am aware of.”

586 thousand claims had been verified Friday morning, but not yet paid.

“And these are the folks that are going to end up on the welfare line. They are the people who are standing right now in lines to get free food” says Attorney Mattox.

To speed up payments, the state shut down the Connect site  until 8 am Monday.

Although the web site is down, that doesn’t mean you  can’t file a claim over the weekend. The alternate site: floridajobs.org is working. But if you’ve already filed a claim, it does mean you won’t be able to ask any questions about it until Monday.

Other advice we got from the horses mouth. Online applications are processed faster than paper, and it once you make a call. Don’t hand up and call back. It puts you at the end of the line.

A second lawsuit filed today by the same attorneys was was against Deloitte, and of the contractors who built the system to the states specifications. It alleges the computer was never meant to be applicant friendly.