ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. — The director of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity apologized Thursday for the problems that have prevented countless people from filing for unemployment benefits.
RELATED: Frustrations grow with Florida unemployment system not working
“I apologize for what you’re going through,” Ken Lawson said over a Facebook Live chat with State Sen. Annette Taddeo of Dade County.
“I accept the blame, and I own this,” Lawson said.
Lawson also said he is working on fixing the problems by adding staff, working with an tech company on a mobile app and allowing people tofile for claims with paper applications.
“I’ve got to be as creative as possible because of where we are,” Lawson said.
He added the biggest complaint he is receiving is problems with people resetting PIN numbers on the website, and that is the first problem he hopes to fix.
Lawson said filing online will still be hard for the next one or two weeks.
Many people are still reporting difficulty with the website.
“I think I tried about a total of 35 to 45 times so far since last week,” says Nancy Bink of Royal Palm Beach.
“The word frustrating is not the word to use. It’s impossible,” says Mike Pine of Boynton Beach.
“Seventy-seven million dollars, taxpayer dollars, went to a website that was never designed correctly to begin with,” Pine said.