comment by J Anderson on website https://floridapolitics.com/archives/326303-unable-to-claim-benefit

J Anderson

April 8, 2020 at 12:17 am
The Fed Gov knew that dumping the task of stimulus distribution onto State unemployment agencies would result in long delays in paying out benefits, and it’s almost certain that many benefits will never be paid out. This allowed the Fed Gov to create the perception that they did something bold and beneficial for U.S. citizens, relieving themselves of the responsibility and dumping it on State agencies. The fact is, what the Fed Gov did will likely prove to be of little benefit, as by the time the benefits get paid out, it will be too late for most small businesses and households that hung on as long as they could, but the money didn’t come in time.

Millions of lives will suffer grave consequences and many will never recover. What many don’t understand or consider is the domino effect. Recovering or rebuilding from financial ruin requires far more than the sum of what was lost. Your credit rating will fall dramatically, which may disqualify you for housing, loans, etc., and if you are able to finance anything, you will pay more due to a bad credit rating. The last thing you need at that moment is an even higher cost than what you were paying before the crisis, and it may prevent you from being able to finance anything.

Every utility will be more difficult and expensive to turn back on. You may lose your phone number and need to contact everyone to let them know the new number when you eventually can afford phone service again. You may still be on the hook for any payments not made to entities (mortgage, phone, utilities, etc.), which may lead to lawsuits and garnished wages if/when/as soon as you’re earning again. You’ll likely acquire penalties and fees for non-payment to credit cards.
A particularly sinister hit is overdraft fees on your checking accounts. When you do get some money to deposit, those fees will be deducted right off the top. Again, the last thing you need in that moment. Banks are looking forward to that additional revenue that cost them nearly nothing to earn.

Those are just a few of many examples of what you will likely suffer in addition to the obvious individual financial hardships. Don’t blindly believe the message of optimism coming from the Fed and State reps. Getting your life back to financial zero or balance will require far more than the sum of what was lost, and some will never be able to recover even after years of focused effort and doing the right thing. For many, American life as they knew it will change for the worse and their quality of life will never return to what it was.

In 2020, considering the technology that’s available, there is absolutely no excuse for the inability of Fed and State Gov agencies to distribute funds. We put a rover on Mars, people. The problem is not the virus nor the volume to be distributed. The problem is that these agencies did not spend the money to keep their systems up to date and robust so that they could handle fluctuations or special conditions. After 30 years in IT, I assure you the capable technology is readily available. You, the citizens of your state, just aren’t important enough to be a high enough priority to spend the money on apparatus that serves you. It’s that simple. The level of incompetence of those elected into positions of power is stunning, especially against the backdrop of all the flag-waving and chest-beating about “American exceptionalism”. There is nothing exceptional about how the Fed and State Govs are handling the stimulus package – a critical determiner of whether businesses, families and individuals will or will not plunge into financial ruin.

It’s possible, or even likely, that much of the money sent from the Fed Gov to State employment agencies will never be paid out or distributed at all. What do you think will happen with all of that money? Will the Fed Gov ask for it to be paid back? Doubt it. The status of that leftover money will become ambiguous and fall into a grey area – the perfect status for theft to occur. It will stay with the State and almost certainly, ultimately, be allocated to other projects or end up in the pockets of politics, politicians, and/or further laundered through unknown individuals close to those who are in control of the money.

Keep in mind that there’s little incentive for the DEO to pay out all of the money, but a big incentive to retain as much as possible, claiming that you, for one bogus reason or another, didn’t qualify.
Keep that in mind every time your effort to complete the application, or progress through the myriad of incoherent, inconsistent pages to request a payout, is blunted for one reason or another, including kicking you out of the system after all the time spent to get that far into the process.
Keep that in mind when considering the lack of, conflicting, and inconsistent guidance and instruction among those pages. Some have attempted to get through the process by trying every possible combination of selections, just to test to see if it’s even possible. While some have reported success, most report that the process is packed with confusing, conflicting, ambiguous, inconsistent questions that require choosing answers that don’t apply to the applicant. This starts a domino affect and builds-in reasons to deny the applicant in later pages of the process, making it actually, factually, impossible to satisfy the process and receive any benefits.

Although completely justified, it’s doubtful that complaining on social media will be enough to change that outcome. Those in State Govs are counting on you to eventually tire, give up, and turn your attention to other things so they can quietly repurpose the money that is due to you, for their own self-interests. When Fed Gov officials are made aware of what’s going on, they simply deny it and boast about what a great job they’re doing, so don’t expect any help from them. They’ve washed their hands of it and just refer you back to the same entity that’s the source of the problem.

They’re all asking you/us to be patriots and stand strong, do the right thing, tough it out, and show what we’re made of. Maybe the same should be applied to how we respond to the unpatriotic, disgusting, shameful denial of benefits that were promised and due, but intentionally or recklessly or irresponsibly or unlawfully made impossible to collect.
If most of our protest is going to be through social media, at the very least, we need to quadruple the volume and focus it on those with their hands on the levers. Make it clear that we’re not letting up and not going away until every last dime that is due is paid out.