With the number of unemployment benefits claims reaching unprecedented levels, WaTech is taking steps to fortify the state's secure login system over the next two weeks to help ensure those claims get through.
Data from SecureAccess Washington (SAW), the state's secure portal serving the Employment Security Department (ESD), shows a 1,700% increase in the number of concurrent users from a month ago. That number rose from about 1,500 concurrent users in late February to a spike of 21,765 on March 26, and then a new high-water mark of 26,998 on March 30.
The overall number of SAW user accounts is also increasing, from about 8.3 million in late January to nearly 8.7 million at the end of March. ESD has closed its offices to the public during the pandemic and is urging claimants to file online or by phone. Unemployment benefit claims in Washington increased by more than 800% in recent weeks.
While the SAW system has been able to accommodate the load to date, the additional work will help ensure the system will maintain its strength to serve the increasing number of claimants. The agency and its vendors will first perform maintenance work to increase the resiliency of the SAW user database. It will also upgrade the system infrastructure by adding more redundancy to support its mission-critical systems. This work is scheduled during off-peak hours from April 1-13.
"While this work will not, unfortunately, help speed claim processing time by ESD staff, it will go a long way toward ensuring the system that serves these claimants can better stand up to this real-time test," said Deputy Director Mark Quimby. "As ESD is working overtime to process claims, our teams are also working hard behind the scenes to ensure our system meets all performance expectations during this critical time."
Quimby said he is grateful for the strong partnership relationship between the two state agencies that provide an opportunity for the technical staff from both to help Washingtonians apply for and receive benefits through the COVID-19 crisis.
SecureAccess Washington provides self-administered single sign-on access to multiple agency applications, shields online services from harmful activity, and allows access only to known users.
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