PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — State lawmakers in Palm Beach County say they’ve been fielding complaints about Florida’s Reemployment Assistance program, similar to the complaints we’ve heard from WPTV viewers.
Two of those viewers are Daniel Escobar of Lake Worth Beach and Rose Lorenzo of Palm Beach Gardens. Both of them had been waiting for months after they were laid off to receive unemployment benefits. They said they would spend hours on the phone trying (unsuccessfully) to reach someone at FloridaCommerce who could help with their claim.
Escobar and Lorenzo both received their unemployment benefits shortly after airing their frustrations on WPTV and contacting their state representative.
“That emboldened me to know that 'Hey, there's people out there that are ready to help, that are ready to give us what we need if we ask for it,'” Escobar said earlier this month.
“I think we need to be stepping up, and we need to be talking to, you know, our state representatives, and hopefully they can help us start addressing some of these issues,” Lorenzo told WPTV in a previous interview.
WPTV also reached out to Escobar and Lorenzo’s respective state lawmakers.
Rep. Deborah Tendrich (D – Lake Worth Beach) said her office has received 11 complaints, including Escobar’s, about delays in receiving unemployment benefits in recent months.
“When individuals are in this situation, their rent won't wait four to five months before they get evicted,” Tendrich said. “Many of them we've actually been able to help see through and get approved.”
Rep. Meg Weinberger (R – Palm Beach Gardens) said her office currently has eight open inquiries with FloridaCommerce on behalf of her constituents waiting or benefits.
“I’ve had moms call me. They're living in their car with their animals, you know, because they're in that desolate of a situation,” Weinberger said. "It's not something that I can just hear about and forget.”
Weinberger attributed the delays to fraud prevention measures at FloridaCommerce.
“I think that we probably need to find a faster way to figure out if they're real people are fraud,” Weinberger said.
Tendrich, meanwhile, pointed to a number of individual issues that could more easily be solved by better customer service.
“I think that just an outdated system needs to be updated so we can create— we have the technology to do it,” Tendrich said.
Tendrich said she’s aware of talks in Tallahassee about modernizing the Reemployment program, following a series of reforms lawmakers passed four years ago to address widespread issues.
“A lot of our systems are being updated right now. So I'm really hoping that that takes, you know, care of some of these concerns,” Tendrich said.
According to progress reporting posted on the FloridaCommerce website, it’s been about a year since progress on the modernization projects has been updated. The most recent reports, from May and June of 2024, show that some of the initiatives were incomplete and over budget.
Both lawmakers are open to broadening that conversation in the state house.
“We have so many representatives that I feel are there because they're there to serve the people and to make things happen,” Weinberger said.
Weinberger and Tendrich both emphasized that it’s their job to help constituents with state programs, like Reemployment Assistance.
If you’re having trouble, you can and should call your local lawmaker. You can find yours here.
