The majority of federal employees were scheduled to be paid Friday. However, their paychecks will be delayed due to the ongoing government shutdown that shows no signs of ending soon.
Approximately 670,000 federal employees were temporarily laid off and are not working at all, while roughly 730,000 federal employees are still working without paychecks because of the shutdown, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The impact hit workers living in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where more than 60,000 federal employees live, NPR reported. Many middle-class workers, suddenly without pay, waited in long lines at a food bank Friday to stock up on basic groceries like pasta, protein and produce to feed their families.
“A lot of us are stressed, and it takes a toll on our mental health,” Wanda Bright, a furloughed federal worker, told NPR. “Some people can handle this. A lot of people cannot.”
Workers nationwide struggle financially
Tierra Carter, a federal employee who works at the Social Security Administration in Tampa, Florida, is working without pay and struggling financially due to the shutdown. The lack of a paycheck has caused financial stress, forcing her to borrow money and withdraw funds early from her 401(k) to cover living expenses, she told NPR.
In some places, credit unions are stepping in to provide emergency financial support to unpaid federal workers by offering interest-free loans and fee-free payment deferrals during the shutdown, NPR wrote.
CBS News spoke with Jill Hornick, a 59-year-old Social Security Administration employee in Illinois, who did not receive her expected paycheck Friday because of the shutdown. Her last payment, on Oct. 10, didn’t cover three days she worked. To manage financially, she said she is cutting back on expenses and asking her mortgage lender and other creditors for flexibility.
“I got a letter from [my] mortgage company saying I was approved for deferred payment and that they wouldn’t take foreclosure action against me,” Hornick told CBS News.
More paychecks expected to be missed
Some federal civilian employees at the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs did not receive their first paycheck of the government shutdown on Oct. 24. Employees at other federal agencies will miss their first paycheck a few days later, on Oct. 28 or Oct. 30, depending on how their agency processes payroll, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
