Among the government's suggestions to help make ends meet: offering mortgage lenders partial payments and even payments in kind—i.e., plumbing and carpentry work. (Photo: Shutterstock)
While some branches of the federal government are fully funded during the shutdown battle, others are not—and with some 420,000 government workers still on the job but without pay (including the U.S. Coast Guard, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security and not the Department of Defense), and another 380,000 furloughed, according to a CNN report, the situation isn't pretty for a very large number of people.
Despite the claim of Rep. Scott Perry, R-PA, that federal employees would do just fine until more money comes in, some government workers are among the nearly 80 percent of American workers live paycheck to paycheck. And that means an awful lot of those federal workers are going to be in a very tight spot as soon as that next paycheck doesn't come in.
But never fear: the government has some ideas on how they can manage to get through. Reuters reports that the feds have offered advice on how to keep the wolf—er, creditors—from the door until the money starts flowing again (assuming that it does). Among their suggestions are offering mortgage lenders partial payments and even payments in kind—i.e., plumbing and carpentry work.
New York magazine quotes one of the letter templates that the Office of Personnel Management has mounted on its website to assist those currently without income in approaching creditors for leniency. This particular letter advocates that creditors consider barter in lieu of cash: “I will keep in touch with you to keep you informed about my income status and I would like to discuss with you the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments.”
Navy Federal Credit Union is being more proactive, offering its eligible members a zero-percent APR loan that will cover direct deposit pay up to a $6,000 limit.
According to Mother Jones, some of the dilemmas faced by out-of-work government employees and a few of their coping strategies, one of which is to return Christmas presents. One woman tweeted that she might have to terminate her husband's caregiver. Another is picking up extra shifts where possible, according to a Huffington Post report that also points out that many government contractors won't be getting paid retroactively—or at all—for time missed during the shutdown. And for them the situation is considerably more dire.
Such employees as food workers and janitors and even security services and computer software developers are not federal employees at all, but work for contractors. And most will not receive any pay at all once the government reopens its doors and the money begins to flow again; their pay for those missing days will simply not exist.
While President Trump has claimed that most furloughed workers are Democrats, according to Time magazine, he may be right by the time the shutdown is over. Lots of federal and contract workers, says website Common Dreams, are tweeting back to the tweeter-in-chief that, contrary to his claim that workers are supporting the shutdown until funding is approved for the wall, they are not—and they blame him for their loss of pay and resulting precarious financial situation.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
