DAVENPORT, Fla. — A Davenport man said for the past month he has only received $95 in weekly state unemployment payments from the Department of Economic Opportunity and it's becoming hard to survive.

What You Need To Know


  • DEO admitted to error in initially deeming Robert Nobrega "ineligible" for benefits

  • Nobrega surviving on federal benefit payments until those stopped May 19

  • More than 144,000 unique claims still have to be processed by DEO

  • More Polk County stories

"I can't even afford really a lot of food right now," said Robert Nobrega Jr., 31. "If I didn't have my parents helping me out at this time, I would be homeless right now and that's what I'm scared of, me and other people also involved in this struggle."

Nobrega said his main job was working at a Hilton restaurant in Disney World, which he was furloughed from back in March. The Polk County man also listed two other jobs on his unemployment form — a substitute teaching agency and a Davenport school. 

Nobrega said the DEO initially deemed him "ineligible," but then called him back a month later stating they made an error. He said they then made another error when they zeroed out the income of his school job, which should have boosted his payments higher than $95 per week.

"I don't know how somebody could survive on that in general," he said. ​"It's really sad and it's really hurtful to me." 

Nobrega said he was surviving because of the extra $600 in weekly federal benefits. However, after receiving four payments those suddenly stopped on May 19.

"If you say that you're going to give somebody the $600 a week, people depend on that," he said. "We're not looking for handouts. We're just looking for the money that was that was promised to us." ​

Nobrega said he's contacted his state representatives and the DEO numerous times and can't get any help.

"Nobody seems to know, nobody seems to honestly care. It just feels like it's a runaround," he said. "They just tell me they're doing the best they can. That's not good enough."​

We sent Nobrega's information to the DEO and a spokesperson said someone from the reemployment assistance team will look into his claim.

According to the latest figures from the DEO, $7.5 billion has been paid to more than 1.5 million claimants. There's 144,829 unique claims that still need to be processed and 21,312 eligible claims that have been processed but not received any payments.