Why people out of work in AZ having trouble with the unemployment website?
MESA, AZ — One day after Arizona’s unemployment website crashed, Assistant Director Patrick Harrington says he still doesn’t know why it happened. “What this software was doing in error is it was asking people to create a new password,” Harrington told ABC15 Tuesday afternoon. Video Watch the interview with Assistant Director Patrick Harrington Residents couldn’t log on to file for weekly benefits. The Arizona Department of Economic Security explained in an e-mail that it had “recently implemented an enhancement to its online unemployment benefits services.” The change was “to enable claimants to login with a new password and view the status of their pending claim.” Officials said some people who logged into the system had trouble creating their new password. The problem caused longer than usual lines Monday at Valley unemployment offices for people trying to get their weekly unemployment checks. Harrington said, “One day’s worth of a delay is not going to be that much of a difficulty
Thousands of Arizonans have lost their jobs in the current recession, and they are getting less in weekly unemployment payments than jobless people across most of the country. The maximum weekly benefit in Arizona is $240, which is the third-lowest in the country. Puerto Rico has the lowest payment, $133, and Mississippi the second-lowest, $210. New Jersey is among the highest at $560, California pays $450 and Massachusetts pays the most with a maximum benefit of $900. Liz Barker-Alvarez with the Arizona Department of Economic Security said it’s up to the Legislature to change Arizona’s benefits. “The maximum weekly benefit amount is set in our state law.” Arizona had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation until recently and, therefore, did not get the full beneft of congressional action last month which extended unemployment benefits by 13 weeks. “The way that works is that if the you live in a state that has had more than 6 percent unemployment for three consecutive month
Arizona residents out of work ran into trouble trying to file their weekly claims Sunday, and a bug may be to blame. ABC15 received several e-mails and phone calls from people who were unable to file their unemployment claims for the week. A spokesman for the Arizona Department of Economic Security said the department’s website was hit with a virus. The site displayed an error message saying the server was busy. Those who use the website to file their claims, also said the phone line had been busy for up to eight hours. The DES spokesman said the high volume of calls overloaded the line. Sources: http://www.abc15.com/content/financialsurvival/azstories/story/Arizonas-unemployed-find-state-website-down-bug/Fk0Z0zBw2UyNdarrhVe0pg.
