FSA Problem

pregnantEE

Ten weeks ago I was injured in an accident and have since been out of work on STD. My HR department sent me all the STD paperwork and the plan description a few weeks after my leave started. At that time, I discovered that my dependent care FSA would not reimburse me for any expenses occured during my STD leave. I immediately requested that contributions to my dependent care FSA account be stopped. The change was made, but due to a delay in processing several hundred dollars more worth of contributions were made to my FSA account. HR told me that I would be able to submit claims for reimbursement when I returned to work. I didn't have a problem with that, but now I've been told that my position is being eliminated and I will not be able to return to work at the end of my maternity leave. As other positions are also being eliminated, I don't feel that my termination is discriminatory and that I have grounds for suit. However, I'm very angry that I'm going to have to forfeit all the contributions currently sitting in my dependent care FSA. I've been told that even if I find another job prior to year end, that those expenses can not be used as claims for the funds that I've currently paid in. Is this correct?

I've been on complete bed rest and my son has had to continue in day care, so I've been paying for that while I've been on disability. Now, I'm about to lose my salary for heaven knows how long and I can't get any of my FSA contributions back. The financial whammy is really hurting my family and I was unable to do anything to avoid it. Does anybody know of any contigencies of exceptions that maybe my company's HR department are unaware of?

Down_the_Middle

pregnantEE:
Sorry to hear about your recent employment loss. While it is true that dep care $'s cannot legally be reimbursed to you UNLESS that care allows you to work or search for work, you are in a tough spot with your current bed rest situation. You don't mention what the "delay in processing" was all about, so it's hard to suggest who, what, why, etc..... You might try requesting that your employer refund your DCA contributions from the time of your request and maybe get some/most of these dollars reimbursed. I do this from time to time, when the "delay" was through no fault of the employee. This is a small bump in the road of life, so hang in there and take care of yourself and your baby. The rest will fall in place.

pregnantEE

Thanks for your advise, I'll send a "please help out" letter to my HR department. Maybe they'll bend a little on this.

Carol CA

I'm just shooting in the dark here (I'm not an expert on this subject by a long shot), but thought of some other options you might try: 1) Since you are pregnant and on bedrest, you might qualify for FMLA. Benefits are suppossed to continue through FMLA, so you might try submitting your receipts to get reimbursement based on that. 2) You could try getting a doctor's note that you are unable to care for your son due to the bedrest, thus daycare is required and see if that will fly. 3) You can select COBRA for FSA accounts. You continue to make contributions to your plan after you leave. Granted, these contributions are after tax, so you are not getting the before tax benefit. What it does allow you to do, however, is to continue to be able to submit receipts while you are on COBRA. That way you will be able to submit receipts to get back the money you have already paid in. Once you get all that money back, you can stop the COBRA payments.

Hope that helps. The best of luck to you. Enjoy that new baby!

pregnantEE

Carol,

My company claims that FSA does not fall under Cobra. Could you possibly give me more information on that, such as any references to laws that would govern it. I'd certainly appreciate it. They don't want to reimburse me for the excess deductions that they took out of my paycheck. They claim that the normal processing time for a change in status is over 30 days. I think this is just a way for them to fatten up their FSA administration funds at my expense. As far as I'm concerned this is outright theft! We're considering filing suit in small claims court at this point.

Carol CA

I talked to my corporate offices who administer our FSA accounts. They said we do allow COBRA for our employees, but it may depend on how the company document is written. She wasn't sure if it was a law that all companies had to follow about allowing the COBRA. She suggested you do some searching on the internet and recommended you check out [url]www.irs.gov[/url] and look for Publication 503 (dependent care) and 502 (health care).

Good Luck!

pregnantEE

Thanks Carol!

I'll check that out today!