Financial Information

Community Services Agency

The Community Services Agency is labor’s social services agency whose mission is to improve the lives of workers and their families by meeting their human and social services needs; by building broad and diverse coalitions to promote and protect dignity and justice for workers; and by empowering workers and their unions to make their communities better places to live, work, raise a family and retire.

When financial crisis hits home for local union members, the Community Services Agency (CSA) of the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO is there to help. CSA assists with evictions, utility shut-offs, empty cupboards and more.

CSA covers Montgomery, Prince George’s, Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Northern Virginia. As part of the AFL-CIO Community Services Network, CSA has access to the extensive United Way/Labor network across the country and can make referrals for workers in any state.

Executive Director:
Kathleen McKirchy
kmckirch@dclabor.org
202-974-8221 (office)

Please click on the links below for financial resources:

Getting Control of your Finances

Letter to Creditors

Financial Emergencies

Thrift Savings Plan Information

How will your Thrift Saving plan be affected by the Government Shutdown? Click here for more information.

Guidance and Information on Furlough

To see Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Furlough, please click here.

Unemployment Information

Q: Are employees entitled to unemployment compensation while on furlough?
A. It is possible that furloughed employees may become eligible for unemployment compensation. State unemployment compensation requirements differ. Some States require a 1-week waiting period before an individual qualifies for payments. Agencies or employees should submit questions to the appropriate State (or District of Columbia) office. In general, the law of the State in which an employee’s last official duty station in Federal civilian service was located will be the State law that determines eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits. (See the Department of Labor website "Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees" at http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/unemcomp.asp.)

All three states- Maryland, Virginia and DC- have a one week waiting period for Unemployment Insurance (UI) which means that you will never get paid UI for the first week of unemployment, payments start effective the second week.

You can apply on-line- you should apply for benefits from the state in which you worked:

Maryland- file a claim on line- http://www.dllr.state.md.us/employment/unemployment.shtml, under “claimant information”, click on “apply for unemployment insurance benefits”

DC- http://www.does.dc.gov/does/cwp/view,a,1232,q,537855,doesNav,|32062|.asp,

Click on “file for unemployment benefits”

Virginia- http://www.vec.virginia.gov/vecportal//index.cfm, click on “I am unemployed” and file on-line

The amount you would get would depend on how much you earn up to a cap- maximum weekly benefits average $350 across the 3 states. unemployment insurance requires that you are willing and able to work and conduct a job search. If you receive unemployment insurance and subsequently get reimbursed by the federal government for your salary for the time the government is shut down, you may be required to re-pay the unemployment insurance benefits.

This information can be found on the OPM website which you should check for other important info about the potential shutdown:

http://www.opm.gov/furlough2011

Will applying for unemployment insurance affect my credit?

http://www.ehow.com/info_7736117_filing-unemployment-hurt-credit-score.html