Released by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office
During a COVID-19 response roundtable yesterday at the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced actions the state taking to improve Florida’s reemployment assistance program. The Governor was joined a the roundtable by Department Economic Opportunity Executive Director Ken Lawson, Department of Services Secretary Jonathan Satter, and Department of Revenue Executive Director Dr. Jim Zingale.
Last week, Governor DeSantis signed Executive Order 20-93 directing DDEO and other executive agencies to take necessary actions to improve DEO’s Reemployment Assistance Program.
The following agencies have taken the actions outlined below:
Department of Economic Opportunity
* DEO installed 72 new servers – The system can now handle up to 120,000 simultaneous connections by individuals filing claims. This allows for far greater capacity than the 20,000 connections the system was having difficulty with one week ago.
* DEO published a paper application over the weekend that people can complete and mail in. Before creating the paper application, people could only fill out an application over the phone or online. the paper application and important information about Reemployment Assistance is available at www.FloridaJobs.org/COVID-19.
DEO hired a call center, streamlined the training process, and trained more than 200 people so they can start answering call
DEO will continue train more than 700 more individuals throughout the week, so that by next week more than 1,000 individuals will be answering calls for Reemployment Assistance.
“I want to thank Governor DeSantis for taking extraordinary efforts to ensure that our agency can better serve Floridians during this global pandemic,” said DEO Executive Director Ken Lawson. “With additional customer call center support and critical technology improvements, DEO can assist more individuals and businesses during this unsettling time.”
Department of Management Services
DMS Secretary Jonathan Satter coordinated the Governor’s call-to-action for state employees to assist DEO with calls, data entry and citizens services.
More than 2,300 state employees have volunteered to help. DEO will determine the number and extent to which the employees will be utilized.
DMS is coordinating technology support and telecommunications capacity to handle a surge in calls and applications for reemployment assistance.
DMS is now working with DEO to establish virtual desktop support and workflow processes to serve an estimated one million Floridians impacted by COVID-19.