HONOLULU — Gov. David Ige announced the state’s new unemployment insurance call center yesterday.
HONOLULU — Gov. David Ige announced the state’s new unemployment insurance call center yesterday.
“The call center is exciting because I know that we have been limited to receive calls and there are those who have not been able to process their claims,” Ige said at a press conference. “The call center is a way for us to reconnect with the community.”
Anne Perreira-Eustaquio, director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, said the program is similar to those in other states. About 40% of the 200 call agents in the new call center are locals and they are not only able to answer calls but they are highly trained to check claims, see what is wrong, process claims, or move the unemployed who is filing to the next step. The rest are contracted agents from the Mainland.
“We have a little over 8,000 unemployed individuals that still need their claims looked at,” Perreira-Eustaquio said. “When they filed a claim, for a reason they may be eligible one week and disqualified another. The 200 callers would check to see why the unemployed individual’s claim was disqualified and to help them understand why.”
Ige said the call center started today and has processed over $3 billion in unemployment insurance benefits and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance to those that qualified.
The call center can be contacted at 833-901-2272 and 833-901-2275.
•••
Stephanie Shinno, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
