A laid-off St. Petersburg bartender worries he will lose thousands of dollars in federal unemployment benefits this weekend due to a glitch on the Department of Economic Opportunity's CONNECT system that's preventing him from claiming his weeks.

"I've missed about 5 or 6 deadlines to claim the weeks because of that error," James Shanklin said. "It has been since the end of May until now – just the error message every time I try to get it to go through.”

The 27-year-old was approved for benefits in late May and received his first round of $125 from the state and $600 in federal money. The problem kicked in when he tried to "claim weeks" to receive future payments.

Shanklin took a screenshot of the message that states, "error: the system has experienced an unexpected technical error."

"At first I was like 'ok, it's just one little error,' but after I tried dozens of times and tried calling, it became more than just a little problem," he said. 

"The few times I actually got a hold of somebody I would get, 'yeah, I see the error too. That's interesting. Maybe try again tomorrow' or 'have you contacted anybody else about this?'"

The $600 pandemic federal unemployment benefit expires at the end of the month, but in order to get that money, claimants must claim their weeks before July 25. 

Shanklin worries that he will lose out if his issue is not resolved soon. He says, if he doesn’t receive the money, he will be evicted next month.

James Shanklin, 27

"I hit submit and then I get the error message. So, I can't make the claim," he said 

"When the deadline comes, I can't file any appeal about not getting any of my payments because they're just going to say 'well, you didn't make any claims. You had a deadline to meet to make those claims', but I can't make the claims."  

Shanklin said the DEO recommended clearing out his internet cache as a way to fix the glitch, but that did not work either.

"It's immensely frustrating to say the least," he said. "I just get the same basic response of 'oh, just call this number' or 'go online and look at the frequently asked questions.'

DEO press secretary Paige Landrum said the department’s reemployment assistance team will look into what's happening.

"DEO remains committed to paying eligible Floridians whose employment has been impacted by COVID-19 as quickly as possible," she said. "Floridians who have filed claims and claimed weeks before the week ending July 25 will receive payment they are eligible for."