WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — WPTV is giving a voice to people who say their unemployment claims have gone unanswered for months, with no end in sight.
As people battling for benefits continue to share their stories with us, chief investigator Jamie Ostroff found a common thread among some of those stories: severance.
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It's common for workers who've been laid off to receive some sort of severance package from their employer. However, those payments appear to be a real sticking point, according to some claimants, which is keeping their benefits at bay.
Daniel Escobar, of Lake Worth, has been looking for a job since November. That's when his learning and development position at a fast food chain was eliminated in a corporate restructuring.
"It's tough out there," Escobar said. "This is the first time that I've ever had a situation where I had to reach out for unemployment."
After going through the application process with Florida's Reemployment Assistance program, which Escobar described as time-consuming and "cumbersome," Escobar was deemed eligible for assistance.
Five months later, he's still waiting for that assistance.
Escobar said he continues to file claims for benefits by providing the program with details on all of the jobs he's applied for, which is a weekly requirement for claimants.
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"Which takes a lot of time to be able to get all that information together," Escobar said.
He's also tried reaching the Reemployment program over the phone.
"Whenever you do call, you get put on hold for at least two, maybe three hours at minimum," Escobar said, adding that sometimes the call disconnects before someone answers.
Escobar said he has been able to connect with a representative on occasion, but hasn't received much information from them, except for one thing.
"Initially, I had received a very small severance package — which basically was a two-week severance package," Escobar explained. "And at the end of the day, it was just that's basically the main reason why, according to them, that I have not been able to get my payout resolution."
Rose Lorenzo, who spoke with WPTV in March as she waited for her unemployment benefits, also mentioned that her one-month severance package appeared to be causing a hold-up, according to what she said she was told over the phone.
"Are they looking at, you know, why you were terminated? You know, are they looking at how much severance you might be getting?" Lorenzo asked at the time.
How does severance impact your ability to get Reemployment Assistance?
"Well, in a nutshell, severance pay will interfere with someone's ability to get Reemployment Assistance for the weeks that that pay covers," said Cindy Huddleston, a senior policy analyst with the Florida Policy Institute.
As an attorney, Huddleston spent more than 35 years interacting with Florida's safety net programs on behalf of clients.
When we shared the stories of Escobar and Lorenzo with Huddleston, she replied, "That really makes no sense, but in a way, sadly, it's not a big surprise."
On Monday, we asked FloridaCommerce, the agency that oversees the Reemployment Assistance program, why severance was apparently a sticking point for some applicants. A spokeswoman reaffirmed that applicants are eligible for benefits when their severance package ends, as long as they meet all other requirements for benefits.
"It's another example of so many things about our Reemployment Assistance program that trips people up and causes delay or makes it so difficult for them to establish eligibility that they just give up," Huddleston said.
Lorenzo didn't give up. Within days of her story airing on WPTV, she received her benefits.
"Don't walk away, and if you're not getting through ... push for what you're entitled to," she said.
Escobar also has no plans to give up.
"For anybody else who's out there going through it, don't just sit there and take it, find the resolutions that you can find ways or avenues to reach out to people," Escobar said. "Hopefully, we can go ahead and get some type of help as soon as possible."
Escobar spoke with WPTV one day after he spoke with a Reemployment representative on the phone, and the same day his status on the Reemployment website changed from "eligible" to "eligible redetermined," meaning the program is once again reviewing whether he's eligible for benefits and how much he may — or may not — qualify for.
"If you are speaking directly with individuals who are in need of assistance, please continue to connect them with us so we can provide direct assistance," the FloridaCommerce spokeswoman told WPTV in an email.
