Gov. Ige: Hawaii will apply for Trump’s unemployment program

Gov. David Ige announced today that Hawaii will apply to participate in a new unemployment insurance “plus up” program called the Lost Wages Assistance Program.

The program, under to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was created by President Trump via a memorandum earlier this month in response to the July expiration of the $600 weekly unemployment benefit.

“This will bring relief to many who are still unemployed due to the impact of the coronavirus on our economy. I’m taking this action to maximize all available federal funds to help people in Hawaii who are unemployed because of COVID-19,” Ige said in a written statement.

“In anticipation of FEMA approval, the (Department of Labor and Industrial Relations) has already begun working to build a new program within the unemployment computer system to implement and pay LWA benefits,” Acting DLIR Director Anne Eustaquio said. “In conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor concerning program administration, the state will work diligently to complete this process as quickly as possible.”

Upon approval, Hawaii will offer an additional unemployment compensation benefit of $300 per week to eligible unemployment recipients.

To qualify for this benefit, recipients must be eligible for at least $100 in weekly benefit and must certify that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Payments would be retroactive to Aug. 1, 2020.

LWA is a grant with a finite amount of funding. When FEMA exhausts its grant funding, it will no longer have the resources to provide LWA payments and the program will end.

If the federal program does not exhaust the LWA grant funding, payments will end on Dec. 26.

Claimants who are unemployed or partially unemployed due to COVID-19 and are eligible to receive at least $100 per week in unemployment benefits from one of the following programs will be eligible to receive $300 a week in LWA funds from FEMA: Unemployment Insurance (UI); Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE); Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (UCX); Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC); Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA); Extended Benefits (EB); Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA).