Starting a business on unemployment in Hawaii

Self-Employment Assistance in Hawaii

No. Hawaii doesn’t run Self-Employment Assistance, so unemployment is for people looking for work.

How self-employment affects your benefit

You are not eligible if you are self-employed full time. Money from self-employment must be reported as earnings for the claim week and reduces benefits under the partial formula.

The first $150 of weekly earnings is disregarded and the rest is deducted from the weekly benefit.

Your weekly job search

Complete at least 3 qualifying work search activities each week and keep true, verifiable records; the log in the huiclaims.hawaii.gov portal transfers automatically to the weekly or biweekly certification. Hawaii residents are auto-registered with HireNet Hawaii.

Pontia keeps your job-search record for you and links to HireNet Hawaii, so your plan and your search run side by side.

Other help in Hawaii

• Hawaii Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), Department of Human Services: DVR treats self-employment as an employment outcome equal to other competitive employment: the person must own, operate or manage a for-profit business meant to reach economic self-sufficiency, with income reported for tax purposes.
• Medicaid: Hawaii expanded Medicaid, so the new work requirement applies to expansion adults: 80 hours or $580 net a month, and hours on your business count. Med-QUEST says that from 1 Jan 2027 adults in the affected group must show 80 hours a month of work or volunteering, $580 a month in earnings, or half-time education, and renew every 6 months.
• SBA Microloans of up to $50,000, and free advice from your local SBDC and SCORE mentors.
• On SSI or SSDI: PASS and the SSDI trial work period let you test a business.

Questions