Gloria Wilson, a 94-year-old former Texas teacher, was mistakenly declared dead, despite being alive and healthy.
Wilson, who spent her entire career teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District, depends entirely on this CalSTRS pension. The sudden and unexplained halt of these essential payments has now left her in a financially vulnerable position.
Wilson described the situation as “scary” and upsetting. She first realized something was wrong when her expected monthly pension deposit didn’t appear in her bank account. According to her daughter, Melva Williams, the family soon discovered the shocking reason the essential funds had been abruptly stopped.
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“We got a letter, and it said termination of benefits due to her being dead,” Williams told ABC7.
“I was really upset. It disturbed me, and I couldn’t imagine anybody saying that I was deceased when I wasn’t deceased,” Wilson recounted.
She was stunned by the letter, which immediately triggered financial anxiety.
“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 explained.
Williams contacted the pension plan. They first requested proof that her mother was alive. Later, they asked for a letter signed by both Wilson and her primary care physician, which the family claimed they sent 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,” the disappointed daughter said.
Williams only found out why her mother’s pension was cut off a few days ago during a phone call. She said she was told that many other beneficiaries had also suddenly had their payments stopped without warning or a clear explanation.
“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,” Williams stated. “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?”
Still awaiting the missing payments, the family hopes that by sharing their ordeal, they can prompt other retirees—particularly those who have relocated outside of California—to verify their accounts.
Wilson, who has four decades of teaching experience, reflected on her subsequent retirement, noting that the situation was unusual.
“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.
Thomas Lawrence, a spokesperson for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), previously told ABC7 in a statement that the issue was not due to an error or a system problem.
Lawrence 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.”
However, in a positive turn of events, CalSTRS informed ABC7 via email that Wilson’s situation has been resolved and her pension payments are set to restart early the following week. However, her daughter expressed a cautious stance, stating she will monitor the situation to confirm the payments resume as promised and will provide an update.
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