UPDATE on my husband’s unemployment application in Florida:
He was denied.

After all that work we did and all the time spent - he allegedly is ineligible because he is a gig worker. An independent contractor.

We get it - under the old rules he was ineligible. But we were under the impression that he *is* eligible because his job ended due to Covid. Which is it, @FLDEO?

A story in the @orlandosentinel:
“Because self-employed workers, gig economy workers and independent contractors aren’t eligible for state-level benefits, they’ll only get the federal money, DeSantis said...

...But now they can apply for it. DEO executive director Ken Lawson had earlier advised those workers to wait until the state was ready to process the federal money.” https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/jobs-economy/os-ne-coronavirus-desantis-news-tuesday-20200414-r34rqnzjifhefm46wy3mhucrau-story.html

So what should we do, Twitterverse? Our plan at the moment is to appeal, but that process is even more confusing than the application. Are gig workers eligible for state UI benefits? Will they receive the federal benefits?

NONE of this is explained on the state unemployment website.

I am pretty good at filling out forms and following directions and this entire process has been mind-bendingly difficult. It must be insurmountable for so many others.

And here’s one more piece of info: my husband does wine tastings in stores. The company he works for isn’t doing the tastings because Publix and other stores stopped them. He *clearly* is unemployed because of Covid.