Hawaii workers already receiving unemployment benefits because of the COVID-19 pandemic should start receiving their $600 weekly “plus-up” payments in addition to their regular claim payments starting today.
Scott Murakami, the state’s Department of Labor and Industrial Relations director, said in a Facebook Live interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that $31.4 million in state and federal funds was paid out for last week.
However, for those who are self-employed or are independent contractors, there’s no solid date as to when they’ll start receiving jobless benefits from federal funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
According to Murakami, because those workers haven’t paid into and aren’t covered by the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, his department is working with the Department of Taxation — which has the data from their 1099 tax forms needed to verify claims — to set up an independent program to pay them.
“We are in discussion with the tax department on how best to roll the program out,” Murakami said. “… I can tell you that it’s, unfortunately, going to be a separate system, that there is no system we have that is capable of doing that, and that’s why we’re building it.”
Murakami advised self-employed workers who haven’t yet filed claims to wait until the new system is set up.
“It’s completely federal. It doesn’t have anything to do with our trust fund. And we’ve been assured that the money’s going to be there,” he said.
At last count, more than 244,000 jobless claims have been filed statewide because of the pandemic, and the Unemployment Insurance Division’s antiquated system was overwhelmed. That’s caused lengthy delays in filers receiving benefits, especially if their initial claim wasn’t what Murakami called a “clean claim” — that is, free of errors or missing data.
Those delays and the amounts already paid out have some filers worried the money will run out before their claims are processed.
“There is a lot of money going out, but we have filed (for) a line of credit with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and we were assured that we will get that line of credit,” Murakami said.
The system also has been slowed by filers who didn’t received claim confirmations or were issued error messages filing again or using the mainframe to check on their claim. Murakami said a separate email portal was established on the DLIR website strictly to check claim status.
“It is dlir.ui.backdate@hawaii.gov,” he said. “That’ll make sure that we’re notified that you have a back pay claim, and we will work to take care of that for you.”
Murakami said workers processing claims are “trying to get the oldest ones out because we know that there’s a cash issue.”
About 150 state workers — including elected officials and their staff — volunteered to answer phones and make calls at a third call center at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu.
That center will have a greater call capacity compared to the existing call centers, which could “only cue up about 115 calls,” according to Murakami. He added training there will take place during the weekend so services won’t have to be interrupted throughout the week.
Murakami said he knows filers still awaiting payments are frustrated and hinted some might have been taking matters into their own hands. He said the division’s web service was “taxed by bots” and other cyberattacks last week.
The division collected data on the cyberattacks and sent it to the state attorney general for prosecution, Murakami said.
“You’re not only hurting our system, you’re hurting us. You’re hurting your community. You’re hurting your neighbors and your friends,” he said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.