How's the partial federal government shutdown affecting you?

[smiths02]

Furloughed Federal Law Enforcement family - same is happening in our office with morale and people leaving. We have 3 young kids 2 with a rare degenerative condition - i'm worried how this will affect our health insurance. One of them just spent a week in the hospital and they have specialist appointments out of state next month.

My husband read me something that said health insurance goes on for 12 months (and your contribution(s) gets taken out whenever you get paid again).


I didn't know about the vision and dental until dominiondad pointed it out. Luckily, dental is through my work (DS is in the middle of braces right now), but we just switched vision to DH's work...ugh. Anyhow, for those, you can call in and pay your contribution and coverage will continue.

 

[barkley]

Federal worker here. Have to work, not getting paid. We were just advised that in 11 days our vision and dental coverage will end. Apparently your health coverage continues, but if payments aren't made for your vision/dental for two pay periods, the coverage ends. Good stuff.

Anyhow, for those, you can call in and pay your contribution and coverage will continue

but will the contribution be at the regular rate or the entire cost (employer share/employee share)? i wonder b/c my (non fed) former employer required we be in ACTIVE pay status on the first working day of any month to qualify for employee health benefits. if someone was say on a long term medical leave and had exhausted almost all of their accruals h/r would try to work with them so that the last 8 hours of sick leave could be doled out at the minimum usage amount of 1 hour at a time and post it on the first working day of the month so they got a paycheck of a few dollars otherwise it became the whole cobra type of cost structure-with the employee who wanted to continue coverage responsible for both the employer and employee shares of premiums (and i gotta say-government does NOT do a good job of negotiating insurance rates, you would think that having massive numbers of employees would carry some kind of buying power but either it doesn't or they don't give a rat's a.. b/c the shared premiums for my vision and dental was/is so overpriced for the amounts of coverage it wouldn't make sense to pay for it w/o their contribution).

 

[DopeyDame]

Some of the IRS was already working. The employees that support the mortgage industry were brought back with pay (paid by fees collected much like how the passport offices are open and those employees are being paid) some time ago. Just yesterday I received the PIN I need to file my 2018 taxes so the people who generate those mailings are working. Perhaps they are contract and their contract is not impacted?

Not contractors. Just Americans working without getting paid.

 

[DopeyDame]

But will furloughed workers even have a W2 yet if their HR folks are also furloughed?

I'm not positive, but my guess is no. I know the contractors around here aren't getting their year-end statements, and none of their payments are being processed - even money earned before the shut down.

 

[kdonnel]

Not contractors. Just Americans working without getting paid.

I wasn’t aware that contractors were by default not Americans.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm not positive, but my guess is no. I know the contractors around here aren't getting their year-end statements, and none of their payments are being processed - even money earned before the shut down.

Part of what I was wondering is how people's pay-stubs are formulated.

For example every company I've worked for paystubs keep a running total of YTD figures on each paycheck. My husband rarely uses his actual w-2 these days. He just uses his last paystub.

Because wages are taxed during the year at which you are paid not earned this shutdown, depending on how one is paid, should still generate a YTD figure for someone to use for their taxes. Even another poster already pointed out: "So the last pay received in December 2018 will be the last wage amount included on the W-2"

It's also why I specified it could depend on contract or not contracted.

 

[DopeyDame]

I wasn’t aware that contractors were by default not Americans.

I don't understand what you're saying/suggesting here.
My point is that you seemed to assume it was paid contractors doing the work. It's not. It's civil servants who aren't getting paid, but are working on behalf of their fellow Americans anyway.
The country of origin of contractors is irrelevant. (And of course, most of the government contractors are citizens or permanent residents - that's typically one of the requirements for the job.)

 

[DopeyDame]

Part of what I was wondering is how people's pay-stubs are formulated.

For example every company I've worked for paystubs keep a running total of YTD figures on each paycheck. My husband rarely uses his actual w-2 these days. He just uses his last paystub.

Because wages are taxed during the year at which you are paid not earned this shutdown, depending on how one is paid, should still generate a YTD figure for someone to use for their taxes. Even another poster already pointed out: "So the last pay received in December 2018 will be the last wage amount included on the W-2"

It's also why I specified it could depend on contract or not contracted.

Yeah, you're probably right that they'll have enough info to fill out their taxes. I'm not sure how the back pay for the last week and a half would play-out tax wise. The civil servants I know aren't doing taxes yet because they still have a few months before they need to worry about tax deadlines, and who knows what will happen between now and then.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yeah, you're probably right that they'll have enough info to fill out their taxes. I'm not sure how the back pay for the last week and a half would play-out tax wise. The civil servants I know aren't doing taxes yet because they still have a few months before they need to worry about tax deadlines, and who knows what will happen between now and then.

Yeah I can understand waiting; I made that initial comment because furloughed or not people are still people and if they were relying on getting a refund they would hope for fellow workers (in the sense of being impacted by the shutdown) even though recalling people to do IRS tax stuff seems contradictory.

I still have to wait a few more days myself because of student loan interest documents. Typically though my husband and I try to file ASAP because if there's any issues (which there have been in the past) regarding delays in payments we at least know we're ahead of people who wait and wait. Though last year we filed our taxes, and then they adjusted the tax information and suddenly we had to admend our taxes because we could deduct our PMI we paid on our home (which wasn't a whole lot as we refianced and got rid of PMI 6 months into the year but still it was something). I think we came to appreciate e-filing and automatic deposit since we had to wait and wait for a paper check lol.

I'm not positive either but I would think because the backpay would be paid this year it would be taxed at the 2019 rates and not impacting the 2018 taxes at all but that's just my understanding (and I could be wrong). Honestly-it's a fairly complicated thing IMO since there are just so many people involved from different pay periods, different situations, contracted vs not, that it's hard to keep track at least for me.

 

[smiths02]

Yeah I can understand waiting; I made that initial comment because furloughed or not people are still people and if they were relying on getting a refund they would hope for fellow workers (in the sense of being impacted by the shutdown) even though recalling people to do IRS tax stuff seems contradictory.

I still have to wait a few more days myself because of student loan interest documents. Typically though my husband and I try to file ASAP because if there's any issues (which there have been in the past) regarding delays in payments we at least know we're ahead of people who wait and wait. Though last year we filed our taxes, and then they adjusted the tax information and suddenly we had to admend our taxes because we could deduct our PMI we paid on our home (which wasn't a whole lot as we refianced and got rid of PMI 6 months into the year but still it was something). I think we came to appreciate e-filing and automatic deposit since we had to wait and wait for a paper check lol.

I'm not positive either but I would think because the backpay would be paid this year it would be taxed at the 2019 rates and not impacting the 2018 taxes at all but that's just my understanding (and I could be wrong). Honestly-it's a fairly complicated thing IMO since there are just so many people involved from different pay periods, different situations, contracted vs not, that it's hard to keep track at least for me.

From what I heard, DH will not be getting his W-2 until everything is worked out. However, he got pay near the end of December 2018, so we could use that pay stub, I suppose. I'm not going to rush to file because we will owe as we sold an investment in December. Right now, we have the taxes we owe set aside but if this goes on much longer we may have to file an extension and use that money for cash flow.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

From what I heard, DH will not be getting his W-2 until everything is worked out. However, he got pay near the end of December 2018, so we could use that pay stub, I suppose. I'm not going to rush to file because we will owe as we sold an investment in December. Right now, we have the taxes we owe set aside but if this goes on much longer we may have to file an extension and use that money for cash flow.

Yeah I personally liked to use my w-2 but my husband hasn't in several years. If you don't have a YTD running total on your paystubs I could see where using your last pay stub would be more complicated.

 

[smiths02]

but will the contribution be at the regular rate or the entire cost (employer share/employee share)? i wonder b/c my (non fed) former employer required we be in ACTIVE pay status on the first working day of any month to qualify for employee health benefits. if someone was say on a long term medical leave and had exhausted almost all of their accruals h/r would try to work with them so that the last 8 hours of sick leave could be doled out at the minimum usage amount of 1 hour at a time and post it on the first working day of the month so they got a paycheck of a few dollars otherwise it became the whole cobra type of cost structure-with the employee who wanted to continue coverage responsible for both the employer and employee shares of premiums (and i gotta say-government does NOT do a good job of negotiating insurance rates, you would think that having massive numbers of employees would carry some kind of buying power but either it doesn't or they don't give a rat's a.. b/c the shared premiums for my vision and dental was/is so overpriced for the amounts of coverage it wouldn't make sense to pay for it w/o their contribution).

My DH was looking into if we would have to pay the entire contribution or just our part. I also am going to have him look into what happens if we just don't do anything. Unfortunately, I do kind of need contacts and an exam this month, but I suppose it could wait or I could just pay for that and a month's worth of contacts and see what happens later.

Vision insurance is generally not that great of a deal. I look at it more of pre-pay. With my contacts, we generally come out a few bucks ahead but not much.

 

[smiths02]

Another impact.
We were about to pay $2,500 to fix a support structure on our house. We were also about to buy a new lawnmower as ours had given up the ghost. We were also going to look into someone painting the outside of our house.
Then a leak happened in our master bathroom shower. It is not accessible to where my DH can fix it. For now, we are just using another shower. Normally, our emergency fund would have gone towards something like this.

I also cancelled our monthly house cleaning.

Getting uncertain about our vacation in April as well now.

I am not complaining about these things, necessarily. I have a job and we have some savings, so we wouldn't lose our house or anything, but 800,000 (or more if we count contractors) being reluctant to spend money does have an impact on the economy.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In my area all the Kansas Samplers and Rally House (basically Kansas Sampler different name though) which are local and professional team sports stores announced that they would hire furloughed workers on the spot. All you have to do is show your federal ID (they are using the logic that you've had a background check and all as part of being a federal worker). They hired 9 people already on Monday when they started this process. It is considered seasonal but it does give people at least some money. I'm sure there could be a cut off of the number of people (though if we win *fingers crossed* our game Sunday they could be even more busy than they are now needing more people) but I think this is such a wonderful thing IMO.

 

[skyblue17]

Apparently the State of the Union is no longer happening as scheduled due to the shutdown.

 

[wvjules]

Apparently the State of the Union is no longer happening as scheduled due to the shutdown.

So there is some positive out of the shutdown? lol

 

[msjprincess]

Apparently the State of the Union is no longer happening as scheduled due to the shutdown.

Really? I heard that Peolosi requested it but not that it actually was being rescheduled.

 

[skyblue17]

Really? I heard that Peolosi requested it but not that it actually was being rescheduled.

It is being reported now that the majority leader has stated it is not happening.

 

[JaxDad]

Apparently the State of the Union is no longer happening as scheduled due to the shutdown.

The State of the Union is a constitutional requirement. It doesn't have to be a speech, it doesn't have to be in the House chambers if it is a speech, and it doesn't have to happen on a specific date, but the President "shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." (Article II, Section 3)

 

[wilbret]

Goofy is my favorite Disney character.