CAPE CORAL, FLA — After losing her job in February, a Cape Coral woman, who wants to remain anonymous, did what thousands across our state have. She tried to sign up for unemployment through the state Department of Economic Opportunity.
And right off the bat, there was trouble.
"There's a process used to verify identity called 'ID.Me,'" she said.
Her account was flagged and she was asked to verify her identity.
But, she says when she logs on to a separate site called "ID.me," to confirm that she is who she says she is, she hits another roadblock.
"They have you put in a phone number and send you a code and that's where I kept getting tripped up, it wouldn't recognize my phone number for some reason," she said.
Apparently, it's been like this for the last month he says she's even mailed in documents and has called many times.
"I tried to call and you're on hold for an hour and a half only to be told 'We don't have you in the system, there's nothing under your social security number you should try to apply online.' (laughs). I said, 'You're right, I should, and I tried but that didn't work for me," she said.
Frustrated, she reached out to FOX 4.
And we called up a few state representatives and reached out to the state DEO and "ID.me" for answers.
A spokesperson for "ID.me sent us the following message:
Thanks for contacting ID.me. Assisting users in need is our absolute top priority. If you can send me this individual's name and email, I can escalate her case with our member support team and they will get to the bottom of this and get her verified.
A spokesperson for the state DEO sent me the following message:
Thank you for reaching out to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. I apologize for the delayed response back to you on this.
Claimants will have the option to request their weekly benefits as soon as their account is unlocked. The Department encourages claimants to monitor their CONNECT account for updates every 24 hours.
If a claimant’s account has a “locked” status, please direct them to verify their identity through the ID.me link on their CONNECT homepage. Below is a visual that claimants can use to verify their identity and have their claim unlocked. Only claimants with a locked status should verify their identity through ID.me. Verifying their identity through ID.me will not otherwise speed up processing their claim. If their claim is not locked, they do not need to verify their identity through ID.me at this time.
It may take up to 3-5 business days for a claim to be unlocked after the claimant verifies their identity through ID.me.
Can you please provide us with the claimant’s ID? We will share this information back with the team for further review.
"It's fantastic. I'm so grateful for you guys, I mean it shouldn't take someone reaching out to the local news to shed light on this situation, it shouldn't be this difficult," said the woman.
She tells FOX 4 she missed the first call from the ID.me team but is waiting for a callback.
