The federal Office of Personnel Management won’t accept Betty Ashley’s proof that she’s still alive. She made the mistake of celebrating her 100-year-old milestone birthday. Thanks to bureaucratic red tape, her pension checks stopped automatically. Now, the feds won’t turn them back on.
Proof not good enough
Betty Ashley is alive and well enough to serve as Grand Marshal of the Gasparilla 5K walk this year. She previously made local news headlines by completing the event while in her 90’s.
She says she found a challenge even harder than that. Finding proof that she’s alive which will convince the federal government to start her pension checks coming in again.
For more than 20 years, the direct deposit happened every month like clockwork. “It just stopped and it hasn’t started again,” Ashley relates. She’s the widow of a former U.S. Postmaster.
Annuity checks are disbursed through U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where, apparently, they don’t like thinking outside the check-box. They wanted proof. Fair enough.
Betty had her daughter, Thelma Metzger, check into what the problem was after six months of checks had gone into limbo. The faceless voice on the other end of the line quipped, “my goodness. She’s 100 years old. Why would we think she is still alive?”
The feds wanted proof and her daughter went running all over town to make sure that they got it.
Not enough to unlock the payments
Ms. Ashley found herself more than a few signposts into to the Twilight Zone after rounding up what should have been good enough to convince anybody, then learning it didn’t convince Uncle Sam.
She sent a notarized affidavit attesting she was alive, with a notary stamp saying she was alive and well and standing there to sign it. She also sent a photo of her holding the day’s daily news as proof she’s alive. “It has not been enough to unlock the payments.” Betty started to have doubts herself but not for long. “I am.” she said with a smile.
“I’m going to celebrate 101 in June.” Whether OPM likes it or not. She was supposed to get a big check for the back pay in time to throw a big bash, but they stiffed her again.
In May, the OPM sent an email stating “upon approval, she should receive all missing payments on Friday, May 13, 2022.” The lucky day came and went with no cash. The proof they sent didn’t break it loose.
Betty is really starting to feel the pinch. She’s scrounging under the couch cushions for change to pay her quarterly federal tax bill. Ironically, she’s alive enough to pay taxes, even though they won’t take her proof she’s alive enough to need grocery money.
“Those payments helped me pay that tax over the years. The payment went up this time. It’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet.“