11 July 2013 Washington Post The Furloughed Files: Federal workers share their stories Exhausted in Fairfax I’m tired of hearing “it’s only one day” and “it’s only 20 percent.” I pay my rent via allotment, because my landlord required it as part of my lease. Because I must maintain my health, dental, vision and life insurance; retirement contribution; fed and state taxes; Social Security and Medicare “contributions,” my actual take-home pay for the duration of the furlough will be ... zero.” I’m curtailing my TSP [Thrift Savings Plan] so I don’t end up actually owing the government for the pleasure of working. My childcare (two kids) for summertime has gone up to $476 a week. That’s $1,904 a month ... and, no, they won’t cut me any break because I’m furloughed. Even if I take the kids out of day care for the day I am furloughed, I must pay full price. I put aside extra money all year to help cover my summer childcare, but now I am in a situation where I am without funds to pay for utilities and food. I love it when people tell me I should have six months’ worth of pay in a savings account. I have to actually live on what I earn, so having that kind of ready cash put aside is not feasible. I thought I was being responsible by putting away money for my retirement. My car is nine years old, and I intend to drive it until it won’t go anymore. We don’t take extravagant vacations (I don’t think driving to the Midwest once a year to visit family is extravagant). I do have cable, because that’s how I get my Internet connection that I am required to have for my job (we are required to be “telework ready”). We don’t have cell phones. We already didn’t eat out or go to movies ... too darned expensive. I have to pay my utilities, my renter’s insurance, my car insurance and my family’s prescriptions. Too bad my kids won’t qualify for reduced or free lunch ... or free breakfast, or reduced child care. Where am I going to scrimp? Groceries. Sorry kids. Oh, and stop growing, because I can’t afford to buy you clothes for school. Or school supplies, for that matter. We were just told that furloughs will probably extend through 2014, and that a civilian RIF [Reduction in Force] is a guarantee. — Pat Hickman, Defense Department Fairfax ‘Creeping uncertainty’ I’m a furloughed Army employee at Fort Rucker, Ala. The biggest impact I see is that the impact of the furloughs falls on different people in different measures depending on their financial situation. Some workers are able to absorb the cost with minor adjustments while others are unable to make ends meet. This creates creeping uncertainty. Couple that with the stunning lack of empathy by many people as evidenced in blogs and comments on Web sites and the result is an immeasurable dampening of morale. I have lost faith in our political class ... particularly the House of Representatives. I cannot rely on my employer to reliably pay me. — George Wade, Department of Defense Fort Rucker, Ala. A choice to make My name is Craig Granville and I work as an Admin Lead at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. I have been furloughed for the next 11 weeks and it will hit my expenses hard. I have a wife who is currently going for treatment for [an illness] and now my insurance company will only pay half of the expense, and I have to come up with the rest. I have two choices here: cancel my wife’s treatments or our family vacation. — Craig Granville, Norfolk Naval Shipyard Portsmouth, Va.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 10:43:27 +0000
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