Military families suffered during the shutdown: “We’re hearing in real time stories from families that are incredibly alarming”

After 43 days, the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States is finally over, offering a sheer sense of relief to the huge number of families whose incomes have been slashed for well over a month.

“We’re hearing in real time stories from families that are incredibly alarming,” Kara Pappas, chief advancement officer of the nonprofit Military Family Advisory Network, told The Hill.

Civilian defense workers face days-long delay

Furloughed civilian defense employees are among those who have been hardest hit and will continue to be for another few days, which goes against the rule of law.

According to a 2019 law, workers who miss paychecks in such circumstances must be retroactively paid immediately after the shutdown ends, no matter the date. This happened after previous shutdowns, but it will not be the case for everyone this time.

Because large numbers of human resources employees across agencies were also furloughed, chose to leave or were fired, paychecks for civilian employees at the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs were not processed until Sunday, several days after the end of the shutdown. They will not land in bank accounts until a few days later.

That is bad news for the estimated 334,900 civilian defense employees who were furloughed. Many missed two full paychecks and part of a third. Approximately a third were forced to continue working jobs related to medical care, emergency response or protecting human life.

Military families hit by food assistance pause

On top of that, thousands of military families who receive food-related government benefits were affected by funding issues connected to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which was brought to a halt at the start of the month.

As a result, many affected employees took out no-interest bank loans to cover the shortfall. Navy Federal Credit Union, which offers financial aid to military personnel and their families, reported more than 350,000 enrollments during the shutdown.

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