OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – In June, First Alert 6 reported on an error mistakenly deducting money from a government pension – now there are results.
Donna Novotny suffers from a communication disorder called Aphasia. In June, her husband Don spent hours on hold with a federal agency trying to get an error corrected with her pension.
“The longest I’ve been on hold is eight hours,” he said.
Now, he’s glad that he didn’t take the lack of communication lying down and contacted First Alert 6 for help.
“After you contacted people, we got action,” he said.
A deduction mistake cost Donna Novotny a large portion of her pension and the retired small-town postmaster said federal officials failed to deliver on promises to fix the error and refund the money.
“Because I’m supposed to be getting what I’m supposed to get,” she said.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management had been automatically deducting $840 a month from Donna’s pension for private health insurance she couldn’t use because the postal service switched her to Medicare.
But not before $5,700 had been incorrectly deducted from her pension.
”We fought for six months and got no answers from anybody, and in four days they corrected it all and started the refund,” Don said.
First Alert 6 contacted Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon’s office and his constituent staff sent proof to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that the mistaken deductions from the federal pension should be stopped and money refunded.
“Government absolutely did the right thing this time. It did take a little bit of time, but we’re glad we got some resolution,” said Danielle Jensen, Bacon’s communications director.
”We work with constituents to make sure they give us the proper paperwork… email trails they have so we can submit it to the proper agency,” she said.
Though Donna may sometimes lose her train of thought, she said regaining her full pension eases financial stress on the couple in their retirement years.
”All our monthly stuff is working out great, thank you,” she said.
Bacon has a website that provides a link for constituents to use for getting help in dealing with a federal agency at bacon.house.gov.
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