Entrepreneurs often start this way, in business for themselves. They are not counted as a beneficiary of the standard unemployment insurance (UI) pool, so their loss of income and filing for financial help aren’t supported by this pool.

The coronavirus pandemic has altered that fact, at least in theory. Under the federal CARES Act, $260 billion was set aside to expand government aid, in what’s called the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, to the self-employed, part-time workers and others who are otherwise excluded.

Unfortunately, the enormity of Hawaii’s unemployment problems have made an already inefficient system virtually inoperable — and that new PUA benefit, so far, largely theoretical. On Wednesday, however, Gov. David Ige said during his regular briefing, it should be delivered soon, through a new portal (pua.hawaii.gov).

This is a commitment that is being watched anxiously by a growing class of workers. Businesses increasingly have turned to independent contractors rather than hire staff, adding to what’s called “the gig economy.”

It’s a quadrant of the workforce that’s been struggling long before COVID-19 became a health crisis. And for the past 40 days, that business activity, along with most conventional business sectors, have been shut down.

This means that the retailers, restaurant and other businesses that make up the state’s service-industry economy built around tourism have shed thousands of jobs. And the loss of that core sector has left Hawaii with unemployment higher than nearly anywhere else in the U.S.

It’s the sort of devastation that starkly exposes a system that is outdated and unable to serve the people who need it. Claimants must recertify their unemployment weekly, and this adds additional burdens to the system, compounding the website crashes, unanswered email queries and the 153,949 claims filed since March, still unpaid.

Add to this mess the self-employed workers, told that they can expect some help as well. Already overwhelmed, the state has lagged at creating access to the new PUA benefit that CARES provided.

The hard reality is that if the pace doesn’t pick up significantly, that $260 billion reservoir may be tapped dry by other states before Hawaii can dabble a toe in it.

This week there was at least a promising thread in a presentation by Scott Murakami, director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, before the state Senate Special Committee on COVID-19. PUA filers, comprising thousands of workers, should be able to submit their application online now instead of mid-May, as had been first projected, with processing expected around May 15.

Earlier UI improvements have included the addition of volunteer centers to handle many of the less complicated cases, and at least two more call centers. The newest hub, which opened Saturday, increased the number of volunteer workers from 30 to 120. This should help considerably in whittling the overall load.

By May 8 another operation by DLIR staff should tackle more of the difficult cases, Murakami said, in which there can be disputes such as whether a job separation was involuntary.

Hawaii is not alone in its UI processing glitches, or in its struggle to stand up the PUA program. But it’s made some critical errors in the opening weeks that may prove costly to the jobless.

For one, the initial submissions PUA applicants were directed to make may now be unusable, meaning those people may have to reapply.

That’s an additional hurdle these frustrated, desperate people didn’t need. DLIR owes them its utmost efforts to give them the federal funds that may pave a rough path toward their financial recovery.