I was just watching the nightly news here in Central Florida and learned that Florida launched a brand new website called CONNECT to process unemployment claims.
No, this isn’t the troubled debut of the HealthCare.gov site that is dominating cable news these days.
It’s Gov. Rick Scott’s roll out of Florida’s new $63 million unemployment benefits website. Launched last week and initially called a success by a Department of Economic Opportunity spokeswoman, it’s becoming increasingly evident that it’s having Obamacare-esque problems of its own.
On Wednesday, the Department of Economic Opportunity, which oversees the state’s processing of claims for an average of 235,000 recipients, issued its most detailed acknowledgment yet that all is not well with the new website.
Florida's DEO admits ongoing issues with unemployment benefits website
I wonder if the GOP-lead State Legislature will be calling for hearings and damning Rick Scott and his administration for the poor roll-out of this new website. People can't use the website so they've been calling the help line. Shouldn't somebody be accountable for results like this?
DEO Spokeswoman Jessica Sims said that between Tuesday and Saturday of last week, 1,124,350 calls were made to the state’s 1-800 help line. Of those calls, 47,619 were handled by an operator, a rate of about 4.2 percent.