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Government Shutdown May Affect More Than 1200 People In The Wasatch Back With Food Assistance

Utah

 
With the partial government shutdown into the fourth week, the Utah Department of Workforce Services is juggling two important programs to help people get through the financial hardship. They include unemployment pay for eligible, furloughed workers and administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. Carolyn Murray has this:

Utah Department of Workforce Services, Public Information Officer, Wendy Hyatt said about 200,000 people in Utah rely on the SNAP benefits for assistance. Well over a thousand live in Summit and Wasatch Counties.

In Summit county, we have about 250 households that receive SNAP benefits. That’s about 565 individuals. In Wsatch County, there are about 300 households or 704 individuals who receive SNAP benefits.”

Hyatt said due to the shutdown, they had to issue February benefits early. There will be no additional payments made between now and March.

“We want to make sure our customers plan their spending accordingly because any SNAP benefit for March 2019 will be issued on the regular date in March. This means our customers will need to budget their SNAP funds to last through early to mid-March.”

If the government remains unfunded, Hyatt said she does not know if they will be able to administer the SNAP payments to those who need it. She said they are talking daily with the Food and Nutrition Service and the Governor’s office.  The Utah Food Bank has a large warehouse that is full right now.  Normally they cylce through every three weeks.

“She indicated that their warehouse, their warehouse is a fairly large warehouse. They are the central point for about 150 partners state wide like food pantries and other community organizations that deliver the food directly to those in need.  Right now, things are okay.  But if this shut down prolongs, continues, there will be an urgency to increase donations and that sort of thing.” 

There are about 2900 federal employees in Utah who have filed for unemployment insurance. 70 percent are employed with the IRS in Ogden.  Summit and Wasatch County only have a couple dozen who have submitted unemployment claims. The unemployment benefits that federal workers receive will not be charged to Utah’s unemployment trust fund.

“We’re somewhat confident that when the federal government shutdown ends, that furloughed workers would receive backpay for the time during the shutdown. If that happens, then any money received during the shutdown and any unemployment benefits would be paid back.”

Summit County Economic Development Director, Jeff Jones said there are about 200 federal jobs in the County which are mostly military.

“The Bureau of Economic Analysis and my data shows that there are approximately 55 jobs that are classified as federal civilian in Summit county. And, you know those jobs have an average income a little over $70 thousand dollars.”

Jones said small towns can be significantly impacted by just 55 jobs.

“Let’s say we’ve got 55 federal civilian employees.  If a new company were coming to Coalville or Kamas or Oakley or Henefer and they were going to bring 55 new jobs to those communities. That could have a significant impact. And so, conversely, if you lose 55 jobs, provided you were able to determine that all those jobs reside within Summit county, then that could be a significant negative impact."

KPCW has reported on some of the impacts the shutdown has on pass through federal dollars such as Community Development Block Grants and home fund allocations.

 
  
 
 

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