Florida halts benefits and demands repayment from some unemployed

With online-only filing and other new rules, it's getting harder for Florida's nearly 1 million jobless to receive unemployment benefits. It's also getting tougher to keep existing claims going, some local labor attorneys say, as the state steps up efforts to halt benefits and recoup back payments from those deemed ineligible.

"They're denying people who shouldn't be denied," said attorney Rita Pitassi of Boca Raton, whose unemployment caseload has quadrupled in the last few months. "It's causing real hardship among people who can least afford it."

Add it all up, and Pitassi wonders if this is a concerted effort to pare Florida's unemployment rolls and make the jobless statistics look better than they actually are. The state will release preliminary figures for July on Friday.

"Gov. Scott might get the numbers down, but it will be because more people are being denied or aren't applying, not because more people are getting jobs," Pitassi said.