File All Unemployment Claims Online Now

By Sonia Isotov

Beginning Monday, all unemployment claims at the Hawai‘i State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) can now be filed on the internet.

In particular, people who want to restart their unemployment claims can do so online beginning July 11, 2011.

The DLIR estimated that more 50 percent of the weekly initial claims were from those reactivating or restarting their existing claims. As a result of this new service, the Department expects wait time to be reduced at both the unemployment office and via the telephone.

“Expanding our online system will improve access to our services while increasing the efficiency of our processes,” said DLIR Director Dwight Takamine, in a statement from the Department. “Our focus is to continue to find ways to provide better services for the people of Hawai‘i and becoming more efficient to save taxpayer dollars.”

“The internet claim filing system was developed as a convenient, efficient option for people to completely self-file their claims,” said Unemployment Insurance Division Administrator Linda Uesato. “We urge people filing for unemployment benefits to file online and avoid coming into the office and standing in line or calling the telephone system until a line is available.”

Later this year, the DLIR expects to complete the last of what has been a four phase process to migrate DLIR claims processing to the internet. In the fourth phase, scheduled for implementation in October, claims office staff will access internet claim filing applications directly, which is anticipated to significantly reduce the amount of time required of staff to process unemployment claims.

DLIR website (note: system active until July 11)