Federal workers in Ga. must reimburse unemployment funds, state says

ATLANTA — Furloughed federal workers in Georgia who received unemployment benefits will have to repay the money if they receive back pay, but the timing is still unclear.

Nearly 2,800 federal employees in the state sought unemployment pay during the partial government shutdown, including about 1,100 who filed for new claims last week, according to the latest figures from the Georgia Department of Labor.

Hear from federal workers who are relieved, but still don't know when they will finally get their paychecks, on the Channel Action News Nightbeat at 11 p.m.

On Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump announced a deal to reopen closed government operations for three weeks — until Feb. 15 — and to provide back pay to affected workers "very quickly or as soon as possible."

The back pay would trigger a requirement that unemployment funds be repaid by the workers.

“The Department of Labor is still formulating the process of how and when the furloughed employees will have to pay back their unemployment payments,” David Bennett, a state labor department spokesman, wrote in an emailed statement.

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Many federal workers in Georgia have leaned on unemployment benefits to make up for a portion of their lost pay during the shutdown. Federal workers accounted for one out of every seven people who filed new Georgia unemployment claims last week.

The latest figures don’t include filings from this week, when it became clear that many affected workers would miss a second paycheck in a row.

About 16,000 federal workers in Georgia have been directly caught up in the shutdown. Many of them didn’t qualify for unemployment if they were required to be on their federal jobs as essential employees but weren’t getting paid for it, according to the state.

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