| What is Unemployment Insurance?
Unemployment insurance is a program administered
by the Unemployment Insurance Division of the State
Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The purpose
of this program is to provide temporary financial assistance
to workers who are unemployed through no fault of their
own and who meet the requirements of the Hawaii Employment
Security Law. Unemployment insurance benefits are paid
as a matter of legal entitlement and past employment,
and not on the basis of need.
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Who Pays for Unemployment Insurance?
In Hawaii, employers pay all the costs of unemployment
insurance through a payroll tax or reimbursable basis.
Employees do not pay any part of their wages to finance
the program.
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How Do I File for Unemployment Insurance?
You can file a new claim for unemployment insurance
benefits or reopen an existing claim by calling our telephone
filing system, “Hawaii Tele-Claim.” If you
are in the State of Hawaii, call 643-5555. If you are
in another state, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Virgin
Islands, or Canada, call 1-877-215-5793. If you are anywhere
else outside of Hawaii, you will not be able to complete
your call and file a claim because we have no reciprocal
claim filing agreement with other countries. You must
use a touch-tone telephone and calls to Hawaii Tele-Claim
are free.
You can call Hawaii Tele-Claim, Sunday through Thursday
from 6:30 am to 12 midnight, and Friday from 6:30 am
to 4:30 pm, Hawaii Standard Time. (If Friday is a state
holiday in Hawaii, then Thursday’s hours will
be from 6:30 am to 4:30 pm.)
When you call Hawaii Tele-Claim, you need to have your
social security number, and if you are not a U.S. citizen,
you need your alien registration number available. You
will need to provide information for all your employers
during the past 18 months, such as the employer’s
name, address, zip-code, phone number, dates of employment,
and reason for separation. If you were in the military
in the past 18 months, you should have your DD-214 (Member
4) available. If you worked for the federal government
in the past 18 months, you should have your Standard
Form 8 available. (If you do not have your Standard
Form 8, you should have your Standard 50 or pay stubs
available.)
Reminder: Your claim begins from the Sunday of the
week in which it is filed. If you delay and do not file
immediately, you will not receive credit for past weeks.
Your claim will start only from the week in which you
file.
For a complete explanation on how to use Hawaii Tele-Claim
to file an unemployment claim by telephone, go to the
link found in this Home Page titled, “Unemployment
instructions for filing new, additional, and reopen
claims using Hawaii Tele-Claim (telephone filing service)”
where you will find the Information on Unemployment
Benefits Handbook. The instructions for using Hawaii
Tele-Claim begin on page 3 of the handbook.
If you cannot file your claim by telephone, you can
report in-person to your nearest local office to file
a claim in person. The addresses for the unemployment
offices are on page 16 in the Information on Unemployment
Benefits Handbook.
If you do not have a touch-tone telephone or do not
speak English, call Hawaii Tele-Claim and remain on
the line for further instructions. If you are hearing-impaired,
call your Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) and
advise the TRS assistant to call 643-5555 and select
Option 2 from the menu.
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Who qualifies for Unemployment Insurance?
To qualify monetarily for unemployment insurance, you
must be paid sufficient wages in your base period.
The base period is the first 4 of the last 5 completed
calendar quarters immediately preceding the effective
(starting) date of your claim. Your claim starts with
Sunday of the week in which you first apply. For example,
if you file your claim on January 5, 2004, then your
claim starts on January 4, 2004, and your base period
consists of the 4 quarters from October 1, 2002 through
September 30, 2003.
To have sufficient wages, you must have earned 26 times
your weekly benefit amount. (Your weekly benefit amount
is 1/21 of your high quarter wages in your base period.)
In the above example, if your highest quarter of earnings
were in the July to September 30, 2003 quarter and were
$8,400, then your weekly benefit amount would be $400
a week and you would need at least $10,400 total earnings
in your base period. You must also have wages paid in
at least 2 quarters of the base period.
If you worked in other states besides Hawaii (including
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin
Islands) in the past 18 months before filing a new claim,
you may be able to combine the wages you earned in Hawaii
to either qualify for a valid claim or to increase the
benefit amount you can receive.
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How much do I qualify for and how long can I collect?
If you meet the minimum qualifying wages (i.e. 26 times
your weekly benefit amount), then your weekly benefit
amount will equal 1/21 of your high quarter wages, rounded
to the next higher dollar if not an even dollar amount.
However, your weekly benefit amount (WBA) cannot be more
than the ‘maximum weekly benefit amount’,
which is determined each year. For example, the ‘maximum
weekly benefit amount’ for calendar year 2004 is
$417 a week.
The maximum amount that you can be paid on your claim
is 26 times your weekly benefit amount. For example,
if your weekly benefit amount is $417, then the most
you can be paid on your claim is $10,842.
The minimum weekly benefit amount is set by law at
$5 a week.
Your claim is good for one year; however, you can be
paid for only 26 weeks of total unemployment during
the one-year period that your claim is effective.
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What are the eligibility requirements?
In addition to having been paid sufficient wages to establish
a valid claim, you must meet the following eligibility
requirements before you can be paid unemployment insurance
benefits:
_ You must be either totally unemployed, or working
less than your normal hours and earning less than your
weekly benefit amount.
_ You must be registered for work with the State Employment
Service, or if a member of a labor union with a hiring
hall, in good standing and referable to work.
_ You must be physically able to work and available
for work without any major restrictions such as, but
not limited to, no transportation, lack of childcare,
attendance at school which affects your availability
for work, or other personal circumstances. If you are
physically unable to work due to injury or illness,
you may still be eligible under the medical waiver section
of the law, if your illness or injury is evidenced by
a doctor's certificate, you are on active claim status
and registered to work, and do not refuse any suitable
work because of the injury or illness.
_ You must serve a waiting period, normally the first
week you are unemployed after your file your claim,
meet all eligibility requirements, and are not otherwise
disqualified.
_ You must file a continued claim for each week that
you wish to receive benefits and the continued claim
must be filed on time (within 7 days after the period
being claimed, or within 14 days with good cause for
late filing).
_ You are not an teacher or other educational employee
filing during a school break with reasonable assurance
to return to work after the break.
_ You are not a professional athlete filing between
sports seasons.
_ You are not an illegal alien.
_ If you are receiving a pension, annuity, or retirement
pay, including social security old-age benefits and
the deductible amount is less than your weekly benefit
amount, you may still be eligible for the difference
between your weekly benefit amount and the prorated
weekly amount of your retirement pay.
_ You are disqualified for any of the following reasons:
_ You voluntarily quit your job without good cause.
_ You were discharged for misconduct connected with
your work. _ You refused a referral or an offer of suitable
work without good cause. _ You are unemployed because
of a work stoppage at your establishment due to a labor
dispute. _ You are receiving or seeking other unemployment
insurance benefits _ You committed fraud to collect
unemployment insurance benefits
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What is Partial Unemployment?
You can earn up to $50 a week and still receive your full
unemployment check. If you are still employed and working
and earning less than your Weekly Benefit Amount, you
may qualify for the difference between your earnings over
$50 and your Weekly Benefit Amount. For example, if you
earn $100 during a week and your Weekly Benefit Amount
is $200, you can still receive $150.
If you are still employed by an employed by an employer
in the above situation, the following rules apply:
_ You need to have your employer complete a "Weekly
Report of Low Earnings" to verify your earnings
for the week. These forms are available at the unemployment
insurance office.
_ You must not refuse any suitable available work during
the week in question.
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What can I do if I am denied unemployment insurance?
If you received a notice denying you unemployment
insurance benefits, you can either request reconsideration
or an appeal. Your request must be in writing, either
on a department form or by letter, and filed within 10
calendar days after the date the notice was mailed to
you.
If you request reconsideration, the Unemployment Insurance
Division will decide whether the decision can be reversed;
if it cannot, then it may be forwarded as an appeal
to the Employment Security Appeals Office or issue you
a redetermination affirming the original determination.
You have the right to appeal a redetermination affirming
the original determination.
If you request an appeal, then you have up to 30 days
to file your appeal, if you have good cause for not
filing your appeal within 10 days. The Employment Security
Appeals Office, which is independent from the Unemployment
Insurance Division, will schedule a hearing and notify
you and other interested parties (such as your former
employer on a voluntary quit or discharge issue) of
the date and time of the hearing.
If the appeals officer affirms the UI Division's decision
denying you unemployment insurance benefits, you have
recourse to file for judicial review by the Hawaii Circuit
Court.
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What is an Interstate Claim?
If you move to another state, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands or Canada either before or
after you file a claim against Hawaii, you can still file
for unemployment insurance benefits against Hawaii. You
can file a new claim or transfer an existing claim by
telephone by calling Hawaii Tele-Claim at 1-877-215-5793.
The call you make is toll-free. Refer to the paragraph
titled “How Do I File for Unemployment Insurance?”
for additional information on how to file a claim by telephone
using Hawaii Tele-Claim.
Once your interstate claim against Hawaii is established,
the state you are filing from becomes your “agent”
state. You must follow any instructions for meeting
eligibility requirements given to you by your agent
state. Since Hawaii remains liable for the payment of
benefits, Hawaii will be your “liable” state
and will make all determinations and mail your unemployment
checks directly to you.
For additional information about interstate claims,
go to the link found in this Home Page titled, “Unemployment
instructions for filing new, additional, and reopen
claims using Hawaii Tele-Claim (telephone filing service)”
where you will find the Information on Unemployment
Benefits Handbook. The information is found on page
12 under the section titled “Liable Interstate
Benefits.”
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Are Unemployment Benefits Taxable?
Any unemployment insurance benefits you receive are taxable
income. You will be issued Form 1099G at the end of January
showing the amount of benefits paid to you. The 1099G
is not reduced by any repayments you may have made for
overpaid benefits. Therefore, if you repaid any benefits,
you must maintain your record of payments, such as receipts,
cancelled checks, and billing statement to make adjustments
to your taxable income and as documentation for the federal
Internal Revenue Service and the State Tax office when
you file your tax returns. Contact a claims office if
you did not keep receipts and need assistance in furnishing
documentation for tax purposes. |
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