Unemployed IT worker finds ‘workaround’ to Florida’s unemployment system

ORLANDO, Fla. — In computer science, the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” is meant to describe how bad data on the front end produces bad results on the back end.

Garbage is what unemployed IT professional Joseph Tate said he ran into when filing his unemployment claim.

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“I have never been in a position like this. It is so frustrating, I cannot believe people have to deal with this,” Tate said.

He said he found himself re-entering information up to five times to allow the Connect unemployment system to accept his claim.

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“There is something broken here, and there is nobody there to fix it,” Tate said.

Tate, is one of dozens of people who have contacted Channel 9 Eyewitness News about problems with DEO’s unemployment system. He said he has tried to call but could not get through to anyone.

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“They have this process where they hold that data, they hold it until the end of the claiming month, so if you made an error and there is something stopping you from going forward, there is no way to get that undone,” Tate said.