UI Benefits to Increase by $300 For Eligible Claimants Over Six-Week Period

Hawai‘i on Wednesday will begin distributing an extra $300 in weekly unemployment checks for several out-of-work residents. The program will provide six weeks’ worth of the plus-up funding for those who qualify.

The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations on Tuesday announced the staggered distribution of funds to claimants of current UI programs, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. With the assistance of the Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency, the department received approval to pay six weeks of benefits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The program will pay $300 a week to all eligible claimants that have a weekly benefit amount of $100 or more in unemployment insurance benefits.

“Any additional funds to help unemployed workers are welcome, and we estimate that this will provide more than $370 million to families, individuals, and our state’s economy,” said DLIR Director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio. “It is important to emphasize, however, that this benefit is currently time-limited to only a six-week period, between Aug. 1 and Sept. 5, 2020, and not everyone who has filed an unemployment claim will be eligible.”

Benefits generally take three business days to be deposited after issuance by the DLIR. Starting this week, a week’s worth of benefits will go out every week, and for the next five weeks, as follows:

• Sept. 23, 24, 25 payment for the week ending Aug. 1, 2020
• Sept 29, and Oct. 1, 2 payment for the week ending Aug. 8, 2020
• Oct. 6, 7, 8 payment for the week ending Aug. 15, 2020
• Oct. 13, 14, 15 payment for the week ending Aug. 22, 2020
• Oct. 20, 21, 22 payment for the week ending Aug. 29, 202
• Oct. 27, 28, 29 payment for the week ending Sept. 5, 2020

Individuals with pending issues preventing payment will not receive the additional $300 per week if they are allowed benefits after the program has ended. Visit FAQs about the LWA program online.

Hawaiʻi is not allowed to use CARES Act or any local funds to supplement those individuals with a weekly benefit amount of less than $100 to make them eligible for the program pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum.