Friday Federal Furlough Fiesta

It’s time to put the ‘F’ in Furlough.

Fun Furlough Facts:

Let’s start with some furlough fun. There’s fun, and then there’s Army Fun.

The Army shows once again that it is the strongest of the 4 Armed Services at PowerPoint. The cover slide alone is priceless, complete with flying bald eagle, cobra helicopter, a crying child, and a nursing-soldier-mom. The slide show goes on to spoon-feed data to all congressional house districts, drilling-down data in each state as detailed as naming the 18 Army employees to be furloughed in Wyoming.

The Navy’s brief (25 Jan) is pretty weak in comparison.

… and the DoD financial summary pdf by state pales in comparison to the Army PowerPoint. It looks like DoD simply did a database query of DFAS civilian pay records by state.

Functional Furlough Facts:

The CO of PSNS has put together a great briefing on how the Administrative Furlough will affect employees. Normally I’d just provide a link, but it looks like the content of this newsletter page is rather dynamic. Here’s a cut/paste of the PSNS furlough skinny, which does a great job summarizing the content of the CNO’s 19 Feb Furlough Memo. As a shortcut, I have emphasized cuts to compensation in bold italics below:

The Office of Civilian Human Resources has provided the following information on furloughs, benefits and TSP:

Pay – ~20% reduction in base & locality pay through end of FY
May have insufficient pay to cover employee deductions (refer to Order of Precedence for deduction, http://www.chcoc.gov/transmittals/TransmittalDetails.aspx?TransmittalID=1477)
Leave accrual – furlough treated like leave without pay (LWOP) for leave accrual and benefit purposes
After each segment of 80 furlough hours, annual and sick leave not earned in that pay period; repeated for every 80 hours furloughed
Impact on high 3 for computing retirement annuity — generally no effect
Within Grade Increases (WGIs) – depends on length of furlough and employee waiting period
Holidays – if a furlough includes both the last workday before the holiday and the first workday after the holiday, employees will not receive holiday pay
Severance pay — no
Unemployment compensation — depends on state requirements

Benefits coverage and entitlements

Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) (reduced salary equals reduced coverage & premiums)
Federal Employees’ Health Benefits (FEHB) (premiums do not change if reduced salary)
Federal Employees’ Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) premiums do not change if reduced salary
after two consecutive pay periods of nonpayment, BENEFEDS will bill employee direct
Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) premiums do not change if reduced salary after three consecutive pay periods of non payment, contractor will bill employee direct
Federal Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAFEDS) (if adjusted salary sufficient to cover contributions)
Reimbursements continue for eligible health care expenses if allotment is withheld
If health care allotments are not withheld, employee remains enrolled, but eligible expenses will not be reimbursed until allotments are successfully restarted
Reimbursement continues for eligible dependent care expenses if allotment is withheld
If dependent care allotments are not withheld, employee is reimbursed up to whatever balance is in the employee’s dependent care account, as long as the expense incurred during the non-pay status allows the employee (or spouse if married) to work, look for work or attend school full-time.
If allotments are not withheld, allotments are recalculated over the remaining pay periods to match the employee’s annual elected amount.

TSP reminders

If elected a percentage of basic pay, contribution will be based on the reduced basic pay earned
If elected a whole dollar amount, the amount will be withheld; if amount exceeds the net pay for the pay period, no employee contribution will be made
Agency Automatic (1%) Contributions for FERS employees will be determined using the reduced basic pay earned
Agency Matching Contributions for FERS employees will be determined using the earned basic pay
If an employee is furloughed for an entire pay period, the TSP employee and agency contributions are not made for that pay period
Loan payments will be withheld providing sufficient salary is available; loans are not in default until the employee has missed more than 2½ payments (https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/oc95-4.pdf)