30 thousand unemployed Floridians will get a welcome surprise in their mailboxes this week. Checks for up to three hundred dollars a week go in the mail to unemployed who have exhausted all of their benefits. But, the extended benefits aren’t automatic, and recipients must apply.

To receive Extended Benefits individuals must:
• Be totally or partially unemployed
• Not be eligible for unemployment compensation benefits in any other state (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) or Canada
• Be actively seeking work and provide work search documentation for each week claimed
• Not refuse an offer of suitable work or fail to apply for suitable work
• Exhaust all entitlement to regular (26 weeks) and Emergency Unemployment Compensation (33) after February 22, 2009
The extended unemployment benefits are retroactive to February 22nd. For those who have already applied, checks totaling as much as 51 hundred dollars will be in the mail this week. As many as a quarter-million Floridians could be eligible.

Jessie Schrimsher is one of them. He says navigating the system is complicated.

“It’s kinda like, doing your income tax,” Schrimsher said. “Kinda the same thing. You’ve got to be an attorney almost.”

In addition to being complicated, both state unemployment hotlines are swamped. Especially at the beginning of the week.

The state says if you can’t get through on the phone, apply online. And unlike past extensions, doing nothing will get you nothing.

The up to 250 thousand people who are eligible for the benefits are also going to be hearing from the state.

“We’ve had two previous unemployment extensions where those people were taken into the system automatically,” Cynthia Lorenzo, director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation said. “This one is different in that applications need to be submitted. We have been doing a tremendous amount of outreach.”

An estimated 418 million dollars in extended benefits are expected to be paid out to Floridians by the end of the year.

Applications can be found at FloridaJobs.org.