DLIR opens call center as unemployment filings sail past 200,000

DLIR opens call center as unemployment filings sail past 200,000

By Olivia Peterkin – Web Editor, Pacific Business News Apr 7, 2020, 2:52pm HST Updated 20 minutes ago Since the beginning of March, there have been 201,836 new unemployment filings in the state of Hawaii, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

It's been about threeweeks since Hawaii's state and county leaders enacted mandates to help limit the spread of the coronavirus, including the closure of all non-essential businesses and mandatory quarantines for all incoming travelers.

Of the 206,126 new unemployment filings in the state since March, about 20,000 of them were duplicates. In response, DLIR has created an additional filing website/data base and added 76 people to its staff to accommodate the influx of unemployment filings.

More recently, on Monday, the office opened a new call center at the Entrepreneurs Sandbox in Kakaako to provide additional capacity to take inquires and return claimants' calls.

Bill Kunstman with DLIR told Pacific Business News that the idea for the call center came about after Len Higashi, executive director at the Hawaii Technology Development Corporation, and his staff offered up the space. Additionally, the Hawaii Community Foundation equipped the DLIR call center staff of 18 with a dozen Chromebook laptops.

The goal for turnaround time between an unemployment filing to someone receiving their first check is around 21 days, according to DLIR officials.

According to DLIR, here are a few common mistakes people make when filling out their forms that could delay the process: 1. Entering the wrong routing and account numbers when setting up direct deposit 2. Entering the wrong dates of employment, wherein last date comes before the start date 3. Selecting "no" when asked if available for work — while though those seeking unemployment are not obligated to look for three jobs per week at this time due to the COVID-19 crisis, applicants still need to select "yes" to avoid an error message) 4. Failing to pull all employment data from the last 18 months 5. Not listing a birth date Despite unemployment filings remaining much higher than normal, Kunstman says that the office is beginning to see "a slight decrease in the number of filings over the last few days."

“We thank the community for their continued understanding and patience as we work towards making sure that everyone is eligible obtains their benefits as soon as possible,” Kunstman told PBN.