Even with a debt limit deal reached, feds who want to keep eating and paying their bills should learn more about the F-word. That’s “F” as in furloughs and freezes (of the pay and job variety) that may be coming sooner rather than later.

With the debt-limit issue settled many agencies will have to live with lower budgets. And that could trigger furloughs, a hiring freeze and, in a worse-case scenario, layoffs that would add to the problems of a job-starved economy.

Any large-scale furlough of federal workers and contractors would be a massive hit to state budgets as hundreds of thousands of people in what are considered the safest jobs in the country suddenly flooding unemployment office. (Thanks to a budgetary food fight in Congress more than 4,000 FAA employees have already been furloughed.)

States have already been slammed by high unemployment resulting from the housing crisis, outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries and people losing jobs because their former customers don’t have jobs or money to spend. The downsizing of state and local government jobs has also put a major strain on state unemployment funds.

Depending on the magnitude of any furloughs triggered by a debt ceiling impasse or down-the-road budget cuts — obvious states like Maryland, Virginia, Texas, California, New York, Florida — with their heavy fed populations would be hardest hit as would the District of Columbia the headquarters for most agencies. But there are also states that aren’t considered to be major federal centers — Illinois, Washington, Massachusettts, New Jersey, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Utah, South Carolina, Colorado, New Mexico, Missouri, Oklahoma — that could find their unemployment office lines filled with one-time IRS, NASA, Interior, Defense, Interior, Social Security and Homeland Security personnel.

Although eligibility rules vary from state-to-state, most federal workers laid off or furloughed through no fault of their own are eligible for benefits which could start as early as a couple of weeks after they were told to stay home. To meet the guidelines for benefits, furloughed feds would have to say they were actively looking for other work, are physically able to work and be ready, willing and able to take another job if offered. Workers couldn’t draw unemployment benefits while they were taking vacation time (annual leave) or were drawing sick leave pay. Also, most states would require them to repay all unemployment benefits received during the furlough period if the government reimbursed them for lost salary. And some require that recipients enroll or be prepared to enroll in training classes.

Financial planners always advise people to have enough savings to carry them for an extended period of time. Obviously that is easier said than done.

But there is a place feds in financial need can go. It’s the Federal Employee Education and Assistance fund. Once they’ve missed a paycheck or two they can apply for assistance at www.FEEA.org.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

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