Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Retirement Section; this is one of the places I needed to call to notify them of Jeffrey’s death. It took me ten days to finally get in touch with them due to the new annuities documents that had been sent out. It was continuous dialing with busy signals. Even when I was able to get through, I would get a recording that all personnel were busy and to call back later, and then I was disconnected.
When I finally got a human on the line (15 Jan 15), I was told that they would have to “close his account” and then I would be sent a death packet in 4-5 weeks. Then, after I returned the packet it would be 16 weeks or so before I got his annuities. My response was “You have GOT to be kidding!” Now, I am intimately aware of how OPM works, especially doing the personnel actions. We would do anywhere from 3000 – 5000 personnel transactions a day. I was doing some calculations in my mind and thought to myself, these guys have got some serious personnel problems. I could not believe that there has been so many deaths that it could take so long to get something done. I decided that I would make weekly calls to keep on top of things.
To make a long story short, I called every week to find out the status of my claim. Every week that I called, the time of when they would send out the death package got longer, to the point that on Tuesday, 24 Feb 15, the time had been extended to 7-8 weeks and then even longer before I would start getting the annuity payments. When I mentioned that every time I called the time was getting extended. Her response was “Well the numbers change every week.” That set me off and I told her “Well, my HUSBANDS date of death hasn’t changed,” and I asked to speak to a supervisor. She told me she was a supervisor. So, I try and talk to her from a managerial point of view and asked why it was taking so long to do these transactions. She responded, “well we have to verify things, and that takes time.” I argued that he hadn’t received anything for February payments and how could that be if he still had an open account. I told her that it taking so long to get his annuity payments was causing a financial hardship and asked if it could be expedited. Her response was “You would have to send us proof that you are behind at least two months on your mortgage and other bills.” I told her that I had never gotten behind on our financial payments and I wasn’t going to start now. I tried to explain that not getting the annuity payment could mean the difference of being able to eat. She got angry and said “We’ll get to it when we get to it, just deal with it!” That comment sent me over the top.
I am angry at this point. I know how the system works and how to file an official complaint. If they are doing crap like this to me, what are they doing with people that don’t know how to file complaints? Again, in my personal opinion – you get a different answer every time you call. It is as if OPM keeps throwing cogs into the situation, people will get fed up and just quit. I’m not a quitter. I picked up the phone and called the OPM Office of the Inspector General (OIG). I explained the problems I was having, the people I had spoken to, when I spoke to them, and what was stated. I told the OIG Investigator that it was absolutely unacceptable for it to take so long to get this taken care of. He agreed and opened an investigation.
I was speaking to my son last night about everything. He responded that he has had to take out an additional Service members Group Life Insurance (SGLI) that will pay $10,000.00 immediately in case something happened to him. He went on to say that it is taking Department of Defense 8-9 months for military families to get their SGLI payments after a soldier dies. WTH is WRONG with this picture??? Why do the families of the very people that put their lives on the line for this country have to wait so long to get their benefits? Something needs to be done to fix this broken system!!
Ironically, as I was writing the diary about the Social Security I got a phone call from the head of the agency that does the death benefits stating that they were putting me on the “Express Pay Status” and that they were cutting a check and getting the packet sent out today. I will believe it when I see it, but why do we always have to clean up the system? It is insane.
Part IV: VA (which will be done tomorrow – I am exhausted!)