Federal Work Study
March 23, 2020 at 10:57 a.m.
Announcement: Liberty University will continue paying Federal Work Study to students who were previously working in March – even if unable to return to work
With the transition to online learning for the remainder of the semester, we understand that this will impact students’ ability to continue in their federal work study (FWS) position.
In order to better assist students during this transition, and in accordance to Federal Regulations, effective with this current week, Liberty University will compensate eligible students with an automatic equivalent of 20 hours of work pay per week at the student’s current hourly rate. This will continue through the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester (May 8, 2020) or until the student’s maximum FWS eligibility has been reached. Each eligible student will continue to get paid through the normal bi-weekly payroll process. Students are eligible for this if they were previously working earlier in the month of March and previously eligible for need-based Federal Work Study program funds.
All students are strongly encouraged to avoid delays in receiving physical paper checks by submitting a Direct Deposit form to Human Resources as soon as possible (if they have not already done so).
As an alternative, for students who are returning to campus during the Spring semester, students may still work in their previous position. In this case, they will receive both “Work Assistance” pay and the automatic 20-hour Federal Work Study automatic payroll (an added help). Students who did not previously work but return to campus are encouraged to apply for open positions on the Human Resources web page to be paid under the “Work Assistance” program. No student positions are approved to work from home.
We understand that you may have questions regarding this and we are actively communicating with each department regarding this University decision. Please direct all questions to workstudy@liberty.edu and we will respond to them as quickly as we can. As the current situation is quite fluid due to additional U.S. Department of Education guidance, this may be subject to change as additional developments occur.