ORLANDO, Fla. – Top salesperson David Catalano worked for Metronet Fiber Internet for 10 months until they closed their Orlando office. He was let go on May 5, 2024, and applied for benefits right away.
“I expected to get a first check in a few weeks, but it’s been over three months, and I haven’t had a check yet because there’s a pending adjudication,” Catalano said.
After reviewing his records, Make Ends Meet confirmed that Catalano’s account is active and eligible for $3,300, but is on hold due to a “pending issue awaiting adjudication determination.”
According to the Florida Department of Commerce website, the “adjudication process” refers to the state “checking your claim to make sure there are no issues related to job separation, and if you can work or if you are available to work.”
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If the state finds an issue during that process, it will then place a claimant’s benefits on hold. The website goes on to say, “we usually make a determination within two to six weeks of filing your claim.”
So far in 2024, News 6 and Make Ends Meet have received more than 80 requests for assistance with unemployment-related issues. Over a dozen of those requests are from claimants whose benefits have been on hold for three, four, even five months.
All of those claimants have the same message on their Reconnect Homepage: “your claim has a pending issue awaiting an adjudication determination.” A determination that, according to Florida Commerce, is only supposed to take a maximum of six weeks (about one and a half months).
One such email came from Hosea Britt, who has been waiting for payments since April 2024. Just last week, she was told, “I have to wait until the adjudication thing is done and they have no idea when that will be.”
In the 2021 legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature allocated funding for the Florida Department of Commerce to modernize their Reemployment Assistance System.
For two years, from July 2021 to June 2023, Florida Commerce undertook the “Reemployment Assistance Modernization” program.
Then, beginning in July 2023, Florida Commerce started the “Continuous Modernization Program.” One of that program’s 12 projects includes the Adjudication Workflow Management project, which is supposed to “automate the adjudication cases and eliminate the manual process.”
A review of the quarterly assessment report from Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) for April of 2024 revealed that the Adjudication Workflow Management project has “officially exited its planning phase and has entered its execution phase.”
News 6 expects another quarterly report sometime this month.
“I think it’s worse now,” Catalano said. “I’m not sure what they did because you can’t even talk to anyone on the phone, or a computer recording, and no one ever calls you back.”
Make Ends Meet sent Mr. Catalano’s information to Florida Commerce’s Communications Department for review.
Two weeks after our in-person interview, Catalano sent Make Ends Meet an email stating that he had received, “the first payment, but it was for $1,925 (after waiting for over three months). I had to file an appeal, and they still owe me additional weeks.”
Make Ends Meet will continue to work with the state to make sure Catalano receives all the benefits he is eligible for.
If you have an unemployment issue and you want us to present it to Florida Connect, email makeendsmeet@wkmg.com.
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