Gov. DeSantis Acknowledges State’s Unemployment System Was Built With ‘Pointless Roadblocks’ To

Exclusive: Gov. Ron DeSantis Acknowledges State’s Unemployment System Was Built With ‘Pointless Roadblocks’ To Pay Out ‘Least Number Of Claims’

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Gov. Ron DeSantis is acknowledging or the first time that the state unemployment system was deliberately designed to frustrate people, making it so difficult for them to apply for benefits that they would give up and just not get paid.

The revelation came during DeSantis’ one-on-one with CBS4’s Jim DeFede, which was the governor’s first sit-down interview since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

In addition to talking about unemployment, they also discussed mail-in voting, the need for a vaccine, returning to work and more.

UNEMPLOYMENT SYSTEM

DeSantis: From the end of the third week, third, fourth week of March through most of April, you know, we were in really dire straits with that system. So I do think we should get the results of the IG. And then, if there needs to be some type of suit or some type of accountability, we absolutely need to do it. I mean, my thing is like a lot of these unemployment systems throughout the country, you know, weren’t very good, but a lot of them were like 40, 50 years old. Ours wasn’t really old. I mean, ours was really five, six years ago. And it should have been done better for that price tag to produce better results.

DeFede: Do you believe that the system was in part put together the way it was to discourage people from being able to collect unemployment?

DeSantis: I think that was the animating philosophy. I mean having studied how it was internally constructed, I think the goal was for whoever designed, it was, ‘Let’s put as many kind of pointless roadblocks along the way, so people just say, oh, the hell with it, I’m not going to do that.’ And, you know, for me, let’s decide on what the benefit is and let’s get it out as efficiently as possible. You know, we shouldn’t necessarily do these roadblocks to do it. So we have cleared a lot of those. And I waived a lot of the letter requirements through executive order. But I think going forward, I want all our systems, including unemployment, to be user friendly. And it was not user friendly.

DeFede: Well, that system was designed and implemented during the Rick Scott administration. Do you think that was Rick Scott’s intention, was to discourage people from applying for benefits?

DeSantis: I’m not sure if it was his, but I think definitely in terms of how it was internally constructed, you know. It was definitely done in a way to lead to the least number of claims being paid out.

DeFede: Now, there was an audit that came out in 2019, I believe, that pointed out many of the flaws. Should you be held responsible for not having acted on that audit and corrected the system?

DeSantis: Well, so that was an audit that was given to the agency head. Nothing ever reached my desk. I was not asked to do anything. I wasn’t asked to seek more funding from the legislature. If I was, I probably would have done it. But I looked at that audit and, honestly, that that does not answer really the systemic flaws that was advanced with this saying. And so even if those things were done and they should have been done by the agency, we still would have had the same problems.

Click to expand...

beefheart said:

Un-freaking-believable....


Exclusive: Gov. Ron DeSantis Acknowledges State’s Unemployment System Was Built With ‘Pointless Roadblocks’ To Pay Out ‘Least Number Of Claims’ – CBS Miami

Click to expand...

beefheart said:

Un-freaking-believable....


Exclusive: Gov. Ron DeSantis Acknowledges State’s Unemployment System Was Built With ‘Pointless Roadblocks’ To Pay Out ‘Least Number Of Claims’ – CBS Miami

Click to expand...