Maura Gee Dzejak, her husband and her two autistic children hae been struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our savings are gone, that’s it. Everything is gone at this point,” she said. “Everything else has been reduced. We’ve had to choose what medicines to get and which medicines we have to get and which have to go bye.”
“That money has really, in the words of the people that responded been a godsend or a lifeline to them,” Opportunity Florida spokeswoman Rachel Johnson.adeoffs when paying for basic needs. And 87% support extending the additional $600 in unemployment from the federal government.
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So far, that money has made up 73% of the $11 billion paid out to Floridians so far.
“That money has really, in the words of the people that responded been a Godsend or a lifeline to them,” Opportunity Florida spokeswoman Rachel Johnson.
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The survey also showed nearly universal support for doubling the current amount of Florida’s state benefit, but that would require the legislature to come back from a special session, or for the governor to give an executive order.
According to data from June 27, the last date the state had data available, 68,152 new unemployment claims were submitted. That’s about the same number that was filed during the first week of the shutdown.
Because the $600 federal benefit is running out this weekend, those 68,000 people will only receive a month of it.
“People are really, really concerned about that, and that money running out,” Johnson said.
If the government decides to reduce the additional payment to $200, an unemployed Floridian will go from receiving a max of $3,500 to $1,900.
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And if there’s no federal benefit, the most would be $1,100, a third of what the average Floridian brings home each month.
Right now, extending it doesn’t seem to be in the cards for Washington, D.C., as Republican senators are focused instead on another round of stimulus checks.
On Tuesday, when asked if he supports an extension, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he hasn’t “been following what they’re doing,” and that isn’t his priority.
“We want to get people back to work,” DeSantis said. “You know, I’ve heard of maybe offering kind of a reemployment bonus for people that are going back.”
But finding a job, Dzejack said, continues to be very difficult for everyone she knows.
“My husband is now working two jobs, which is fantastic he was able to get a second job, just from a referral,” she said. “Because we’ve been filling in applications and trying to get stuff online.”