Hawaii Opening New Call Center to Handle Unemployment Claims

With unemployment claims skyrocketing in Hawaii as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state is launching a new call center to deal with the workload. Hawaii's unemployment office announced the new facility will be online by the end of the month to help deal with the unprecedented number of calls the state has received in recent months.

The new call center was announced after some Hawaiian residents complained they have tried to call the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations every day to file benefits claims, only to have their calls go unanswered.

There are currently 53 people dedicated exclusively to processing pandemic-related unemployment benefits and the department is hiring 17 more. The unemployment office has contracted with Maximus, a New York-based company offering multi-channel contact center support, to hire 100 people to handle customer service calls at the new center.

“So these individuals coming on board to take these calls need to understand the system, how it works, how to help these claimants and not just answer a call, but fix something if they can,” said Anne Perreira-Eustaquio, director of the Department of Labor. “We are making progress on PUA (pandemic unemployment assistance). We’ve been able to tackle fraud. We paid out 2,600 claims this past Monday and another 8,500 claims will be released this weekend.”

Perreira-Eustaquio added that engineers are building a new program to launch the FEMA Lost Wages Assistance benefit and verify eligibility. The program would award eligible workers an extra $300 per week and should be ready to launch next month.

The Hawaiian unemployment office has already processed 135,000 eligibility self-certifications for the new program, while tens of thousands of additional workers may also be eligible.

Additional information about unemployment assistance and benefits is available through the Labor Department's web site.

Edited by Maurice Nagle