Government agency criticized for sample letter, advice sent to furloughed employees

Nearly 800,000 federal employees have been impacted by the partial government shutdown.

For many of them, that means no paycheck.

One family with two small children in Washington, D.C., reached out to American Express about their upcoming credit card bills. They say that American Express was not very sympathetic.

American Express says it can not comment on individual cases but claims they are working with the impacted employees.

Meanwhile, The Office of Personnel Management tweeted sample letters to federal employees who are not receiving a paycheck because of shutdown.

They suggested that employees send letters to their banks and other lenders and get help from their personal lawyers.

"I am a Federal employee who has recently been furloughed due to a lack of funding of my agency. Because of this, my income has been severely cut and I am unable to pay the entire cost of my rent, along with my other expenses," the letter states.

Many people on Twitter pointed out that if the employees can't pay rent, they probably can't afford a lawyer.