UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROGRAM READY TO ASSIST WORKERS IF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN

Approximately 40,000 federal workers may be eligible for jobless benefits

A civilian labor force of federal workers in Colorado are expected to learn soon whether they will be furloughed as a result of a possible shutdown of the federal government. If that shutdown occurs, affected workers would likely be eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits while they are out of work. While there are 54,000 federal workers on Colorado , not all of them will be impacted by the potential federal shutdown.

An outreach effort for these federal workers is underway and the Unemployment Insurance Program stresses that furloughed federal workers should file their claim online. Individuals can simply go to www.colorado.gov/cdle and click on the special link for federal workers.

Workers may not file their claim until their last day of work and after filing the claim, there is a mandatory one-week waiting period before the claim is activated. Unlike most claimants, the federal workers are “job attached” which means they will not be required to conduct a job search during their furlough.

Messages are now being posted on Facebook and Twitter (links to those social networking sites are available on the front page of the Colorado.gov/cdle site) and a continually updated recorded message about the federal furlough will be available on the Unemployment Insurance Call Center ’s phone lines (303-318-9123 and Long Distance Toll Free: 1-866-422-0401).

Current claimants who are concerned about a federal shutdown affecting payment of their unemployment benefits need not worry. The U.S. Department of Labor has notified the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment that federal benefits will continue to be paid regardless of a possible government shutdown. In addition, with the insolvency of the Colorado UI Trust Fund, the state will continue to draw down money from the federal government to pay state benefits.

Finally, because the federal government is not a private sector employer that pays into the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, all benefits paid to federal workers will be charged to the federal government as a “reimbursing employer” and payments to federal workers will have no impact to the UI Trust Fund.