Furloughed government workers could be paid twice in Oregon

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Furloughed gov't workers could be paid twice for not working

William La Jeunesse reports from Los Angeles

Some federal workers who were furloughed in Oregon could be getting paid twice, with a state official confirming to Fox News that those workers who received state unemployment benefits during the partial government shutdown will not have to re-pay the money.

The spokesman for WorkSource Oregon Employment Department said the workers received at most a week’s worth of unemployment benefits. The spokesman said he did not know how many workers received the benefits.

He confirmed that furloughed federal workers in the state do not have to re-pay the state unemployment benefits.

The employees will receive double pay because the budget bill approved by Congress provides that all furloughed government workers will receive back pay for the days they did not work under the partial government shutdown.

Richard Hobble of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies told Fox News Oct. 11 that if federal employees receive double payment, the states should require them to re-pay the unemployment benefits once they received back pay.

“The states will be expected to collect back from the claimants who received those benefits when in fact they were compensated for those weeks,” he said.

During the partial shutdown, a third of the new unemployment claims filed in New Mexico came from federal workers. It was not clear if they would also be paid twice under the budget agreement provision if their claims were approved.

Washington D.C. and Maryland also both paid millions in unemployment benefits to about 24,000 furloughed workers during the budget crisis.