MORE than 20,000 federal employees have accepted an offer to quit their jobs and keep getting paid for seven more months – and President Donald Trump expects the number to rise.

The federal workforce has until Thursday to accept the buyout scheme from Trump and Elon Musk.

Trump’s administration expects even more people to resign as just 1% of the federal workforce has jumped on the deal ahead of the deadline.

After signing the offer, employees have until the end of February to leave their jobs.

The scheme has taxpayers continuing to pay the former employees’ salaries through the end of September.

The president reportedly expects 10% of the workforce will quit, according to Bloomberg.

Over 2.3 million people are civilian federal employees, meaning Trump hopes 200,000 people will take the deal.

The buyout package is for federal workers who don’t want to return to office.

The White House proposed the plan to millions of employees in an email from the US Office of Personnel Management last week.

In the “deferred resignation program,” employees were told if they accept, they’d be placed on paid administrative leave with full pay and benefits through September 30.

However, concerns are swirling about the legitimacy of the program as officials have questioned if the deal is even legal.

Employment attorneys and federal unions have issued urgent warnings to workers to be wary of the deal because OPM doesn’t have the authority to promise paid leave.

The OPM confirmed that no federal employees’ pay will be guaranteed in the program.

The government website says, “OPM does not regulate the use of administrative leave. This authority rests with each agency head.”

Even Republican lawmakers have blasted the plan for being illegal under the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prevents the government from spending more money than Congress has, according to CBS News.

Congress has funded the government through mid-March, meaning the plan automatically overspends and violates the law.

“Anybody else would be walked out of an agency for going $1 beyond appropriated dollars,” a GOP leader told CBS News.

“Back of the napkin math of offering to pay all federal employees for 6.5 months beyond current appropriations is about $50 billion — not everyone will take the offer, but it was offered to all of them, thus it incurs an obligation.”

Workers are free to take other jobs as long as they don’t conflict with their federal employment until the fall.

Employees also have to agree not to sue the government over the plan.

The deal is pioneered by Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, led by Tesla CEO Musk.

DOGE has been tasked with slashing federal spending and cutting government jobs as Trump vowed to reduce the bloated federal workforce.