Thread: Furloughed Federal Employees Flood State Unemployment Offices

Furloughed Federal Employees Flood State Unemployment Offices

On the first day of the shutdown, some state unemployment offices received an unusually high number of applications from federal employees.

BY J.B. WOGAN / OCTOBER 2, 2013

Federal employees who can't work due to a government shutdown that began on Oct. 1 are applying for unemployment benefits in droves. State offices in the mid-Atlantic region -- where much of the federal workforce is located -- reported an immediate surge in applications. It's just one consequence of a shutdown that's also rendered federal websites inoperableand caused some state departments to furlough employeeswhose jobs are partly dependent on federal funds.

Between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the first day of the shutdown, Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation received roughly 4,000 applications, according to Maureen O'Connor, an agency spokeswoman. That's more federal claim applications than the department usually receives in an entire year, she said.

The federal government has not released an official estimate on the total number of workers being furloughed, but shutdown plans from different agencies suggest it could be higher than 818,000 employees, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal. Several state offices that handle unemployment insurance, including in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., have posted noticesabout how federal workers can collect unemployment benefits. If Congress decides to retroactively grant back pay (as it did in the last shutdown 17 years ago), then the employees would be required to return the unemployment money they received.
Last week officials from the U.S. Department of Labor held conference calls with states in the mid-Atlantic region, assuming they would be hardest hit if both federal employees and federal contractors were suddenly out of work, according to Bill Walton, the unemployment insurance director for the Virginia Employment Commission. A recent tabulation of federal employees in the executive branch shows Virginia with the second most employees (144,753) of any state or the District of Columbia. The district was third (143,573) and Maryland was fifth (119,816).* (The counts were based on place of employment, not place of residence.)

After the shutdown, the district's Department of Employment Services received an increase in the number of inquiries by federal workers wanting to know if they were eligible for unemployment benefits, said Najla Haywood, a spokeswoman for the agency. Applications were also up, she said. In Virginia, it will be a few days before the Employment Commission can tally incoming applications, Walton said, but simply by virtue of the uptick in activity on his email inbox he knows that Virginia was experiencing a steep increase. He attributed it to the concentration of federal employees and contractors working in Northern Virginia and Virginia Beach. While the benefits themselves were in no danger of losing federal funding, the state staff who processes those claims are also reliant on federal funding; on that front, "we have about a 30-day window," he said, or "we have to potentially ask state government for additional monies."

In Virginia, the employment commission created a special process for reviewing federal claims in preparation for a surge that might otherwise overwhelm staff, Walton said. The agency is directing everyone to its website, where they can print an application and read a Q&A. To save time, the agency is instructing people to provide either a pay stub or W-2 form; otherwise, the agency has to ask the employer (in this case, the federal government) for a wage history for the past four quarters and -- due to the shutdown -- that process would be abnormally slow. While state unemployment compensation requirements differ, compensation is usually available to individuals who have been in a non-pay status for seven or more consecutive days and meet other eligibility requirements.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the figures given for federal employees working in Virginia and Maryland are federal workers from the executive branch.
This story originally appeared on GOVERNING.com.

http://www.govtech.com/federal/Furlo...t-Offices.html

Federal workers can collect unemployment during shutdown

By Annalyn Kurtz @AnnalynKurtz
October 1, 2013: 5:49 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Federal workers who lose pay during the government shutdown can fall back on unemployment benefits in most states.

But the money comes with a catch. If Congress decides later to retroactively pay those workers, they would have inadvertently double-dipped into the system and will be asked to return the money.

It's not clear whether furloughed workers will eventually receive paychecks or not, once the shutdown ends. But that's how it played out during the government shutdown in 1995 and 1996, after which, state agencies tried to recoup the overpaid funds.

Now, on day one of the latest shutdown, states with large numbers of federal employees like Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania have already posted advisories on their sites, indicating they plan to ask for the funds back, in the event that they overpay unemployment benefits to federal workers.

"If you receive back pay from your agency to cover the furlough period, you must repay any unemployment benefits you received for that time," the Virginia Employment Commission said in a Q&A on its site.

Who qualifies for unemployment benefits?

The laws vary by state, but here's how it generally works:

Federal employees can be divided into two basic categories. First, those who are deemed "essential" and asked to report to work. Their pay may be delayed, but they are guaranteed their usual wages and thus, will not be eligible for unemployment benefits.
But their "non-essential" colleagues will be forced to take days off without pay until Congress reaches a budget agreement. These workers may file for unemployment because they're on a temporary layoff through no fault of their own.

Related: How is the government shutdown affecting you?

The specific eligibility requirements vary by state and payouts usually differ based on a worker's salary and the length of the furlough. It's safe to say, however, that if the shutdown lasts at least a week, most furloughed employees will be eligible for benefits in the states where they work.

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a fact sheet, advising employees that they may file for unemployment benefits on the first day of their furlough, but it may take two to three weeks for the claims to be processed.

If payments have to be recouped, the entire process is likely to prove a paperwork nightmare for both workers and state unemployment agencies. California, the state with the largest number of federal workers, is already dealing with a huge backlog of unemployment claims after federal budget cuts led to a staffing shortage.

"This will significantly add to the daily workload of processing UI claims here in California," said Kevin Callori, a California Employment Development Department spokesman in a statement. "We are already struggling to manage daily workload."

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Federal workers sound off on shutdown

Regardless of how the situation plays out, David Ricksecker, an attorney with Woodley & McGillivary, advises furloughed employees to file for the benefits right away. Workers should not assume Congress will retroactively pay lost wages, he said.
"If someone has rent due, it's better to get unemployment and pay it back later if you need to," he said. "Congress is so far apart on everything that I don't see them voluntarily going back and paying these employees, but I could be wrong."
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/01/news...its/index.html