LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A 94-year-old retired Los Angeles Unified School District teacher has begun receiving her CalSTRS pension again after they mistakenly listed her as deceased, according to her family.
Gloria Wilson’s relatives previously contacted 7 On Your Side for help after discovering that the department responsible for administering her pension had stopped payments because it believed she had died.
The family sought assistance to help prove she was still alive.
Gloria Wilson is not dead — even though her California pension plan thinks she is, leading to her pension abruptly stopping.
Wilson’s daughter, Melva Williams, notified 7 On Your Side this week, saying that pension money had been deposited into her mother’s account.
Williams had been told to send a letter signed by Wilson and her primary care physician. The family said they sent it in twice.
“Mother signed where she was supposed to, the doctor signed where she was supposed to, but it [was] something that one of their names needed to be printed and wanted them printed where the other one should have,” Williams said.
Williams was ultimately given an explanation and 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 7 On Your Side that it was 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.”
CalSTRS sent ABC7 an email Friday, saying it resolved the situation with Williams and that the payments will resume this week.
Meantime, the family hopes sharing their story will help other retirees check their accounts, especially those who have moved out of California.
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