TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – When the tourists stopped coming in March, so did Lorin Lynch’s paychecks from a Tampa Bay hotel.
She burned through her savings while awaiting financial relief from Florida’s unemployment office. It took nearly three months before the 26-year-old single mother finally got a check.Even as Florida reopens for business, Lynch is still fuming over an unemployment system that was among the country’s slowest to respond to the economic calamity triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
The state's own statistics show that about 40% of the 2.2 million claims it received remain unpaid.Even with unemployment checks now arriving, Lynch said, “I’m honestly terrified about how I’m going to feed my son each day and what’s going to.