Florida's unemployment system will be unavailable nightly for maintenance

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida’s unemployment website will be unavailable for all but new claims each night as the system undergoes maintenance and the state works on a backlog of claims because of the coronavirus, the Department of Economic Opportunity said Tuesday.

“DEO will be conducting nightly maintenance to the CONNECT (online unemployment) system to process claims and payments faster,” a news release from the department said. “CONNECT will be available from 8 a.m. to 7:59 p.m. daily. This schedule does not affect individuals that wish to file a new claim.”

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As of Tuesday morning, the state had received 1.94 million claims since March 15, with 824,412 considered “unique,” as some people have filed duplicate claims.

Of the unique claims, the state had processed 664,158, or 80.6 percent, and made weekly payments of up to $275 to 392,051 people, or 47.6 percent.

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About 37 percent of the processed applicants had been deemed ineligible for unemployment compensation. Payments had totaled $523 million.