PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A group of WPTV viewers is celebrating a victory in their fight for unemployment benefits.
They contacted chief investigator Jamie Ostroff, saying they'd been waiting for months after applying for assistance with no end in sight.
WATCH BELOW: WPTV viewer has 'renewed optimism'
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Commerce, which administers the state's Reemployment Assistance program, asked for the viewers' names to escalate their cases.
After WPTV provided those names, a majority of those people said they either received their benefits or at least a clear answer as to why they didn't qualify.
"It's a relief," said Dezaray Castelli of Boca Raton. "I feel like the whole weight was lifted off my shoulders."
Castelli, who was going into her fifth month of waiting for benefits and searching for a job after getting laid off when she contacted WPTV, said she received all of the benefits she'd claimed in one lump payment after her story aired.
"I got approximately $1,900," said Castelli, who lives with her parents while she tries to get back on her feet. "I'm set for the next couple of months. Thank gosh!"
Daniel Escobar of Lake Worth Beach said he has a "renewed optimism" after FloridaCommerce deposited $3,300 into his bank account, the maximum yearly benefit allowed in Florida.
Escobar was laid off in November from his job in corporate learning and development for a fast food chain. Since his two-week severance package came and went, he'd been struggling to get through to anyone at FloridaCommerce, before he contacted WPTV in April.
WATCH BELOW: Battle for benefits: WPTV looks into how severance pay can affect unemployment claims
Within days of WPTV providing Castelli and Escobar's names to FloridaCommerce, along with others, they were contacted by someone from the department who identified themselves as part of an "Escalated Communication Unit," seeking additional information about their claims.
Once they provided the information requested, the payments were deposited into their accounts.
For Escobar, the response raises more questions.
"They emailed me with an interesting kind of document that basically stated or asked me to request to give information about what was going on with me, what was my status," he explained. "I figured to myself, 'Why wouldn't you ask me all this at the beginning part of the process five months ago?'"
WPTV asked the FloridaCommerce spokeswoman who helped escalate the viewers' cases about the escalation team, how it functions and how claimants can escalate their case without a reporter's intervention.
She responded by pointing to links to the Reemployment Assistance Help Center and the program's online chatbot. She has not responded to a follow-up email seeking more direct answers to the questions that were asked.
WPTV will continue pushing for those answers.
