Gloria Wilson is not dead — even though her California pension plan thinks she is.
For decades, Wilson dedicated her life to teaching students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Now 94 years old and living in Texas, she depends on her CalSTRS pension, until it suddenly stopped coming.
“It was scary. I was upset,” said Wilson, adding that she first noticed something was wrong when her monthly pension deposit never showed up in her bank account.
Her daughter, Melva Williams, says the family soon learned why.
“We got a letter and it said termination of benefits due to her being dead,” Williams said.
“I was really upset. It disturbed me, and I couldn’t imagine anybody saying that I was deceased when I wasn’t deceased,” said Wilson.
The letter left her stunned and immediately caused financial stress.
“It was terrible because part of my monthly bills are taken out of my check because it goes directly to my bank, and so I was really upset about it because you wouldn’t want anything to be turned off,” Wilson said.
Williams says she called the pension plan and had to prove her mother was still alive. They were told to send a letter signed by Wilson and her primary care physician. The family says they sent it in twice.
“Mother signed where she was supposed to, the doctor signed where she was supposed to, but it were something that one of their names needed to be printed and wanted them printed where the other one should have,” Williams said.
Williams says it wasn’t until a phone call just days ago that they were given an explanation. She says she was told this wasn’t just happening to her mother.
“The way he put it was anyone of the retirees that had moved out of state and they not have a California prefix… was running into trouble because of the new computer system that they had set up in October, I think,” said Williams. “The basic thing is that just like my mother, they were declared dead or ineligible now or something of that nature. And I’m like, what? A computer glitch?”
In a statement, California State Teachers Retirement System spokesperson Thomas Lawrence told ABC7 that it is not related to an error or system problem and said:
“We regularly verify benefit payments for security reasons and to avoid fraud, and we’re not aware of any benefit payments that have been stopped incorrectly. If a member does ever have a payment delayed, we work as quickly as possible to reissue the payment.”
The family says they’re still waiting for the missing payments and hope sharing their story will help other retirees check their accounts – especially those who have moved out of California.
Wilson says that in her 40 years of teaching – and decades of retirement – this has never happened before.
“I just couldn’t be at ease, and I was really upset about the things that were happening because I’ve never had any problems with my check coming in,” Wilson said.
There is some good news. Late Friday, CalSTRS sent ABC7 an email saying it resolved the situation with Gloria and the payments will resume early next week. Her daughter says she will see if that happens and will let us know.
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