Fedweek

Image: aastock/Shutterstock.com

The TSP has told agencies to “ensure that all employee contributions, agency contributions, and loan payments are made for the period of pay missed during the shutdown” when they distribute back pay to employees who went unpaid during the partial shutdown.

Agencies further are to designate the date the payments ordinarily would have been made, it said. The TSP needs that information because if a payment is more than 30 days late—which would not apply in this case, since the first missed pay distribution was around January 11—the agency would have to adjust it for what investors would have gained (or lost) by having that money on investment for that time, given their investment allocations. The same would have applied to adding interest to late loan repayments.

Further, “If your payroll system does not deduct loan payments from back pay, you will need to inform your employees to submit their loan payments directly to the TSP” using a loan coupon, it said.

More on the Thrift Savings Plan at ask.FEDweek.com