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Coronavirus pandemic
Democracy Dies in Darkness

Out of work — and cash — millions of Americans are still waiting for their first unemployment check

The growing national backlog, analyzed by The Post, has proved particularly problematic in Florida — where fewer than 7 percent of applicants have received aid

By
and 
April 23, 2020 at 2:51 p.m. EDT
An employee at a public library in Tampa hands out unemployment paperwork last week. (Chris O'meara/AP)

Holly Strout is a 47-year-old event planner in Volusia County, Fla., not far from Orlando, where she was born and raised. There’s just one problem: The state where she has lived her entire life didn’t seem to know that.

For days, Strout had been trying to file for unemployment benefits, joining millions of Americans unexpectedly out of a job because of the deadly coronavirus. Try as she might, though, Florida’s beleaguered system would not verify her identity. So she emailed. She faxed. She made “116 calls a day,” she said. It wasn’t until early April, nearly three weeks after applying, that she learned the verdict.