Approximately three years ago, Dad's retirement pension from Metro Transit Police Department in Washington, D.C. was reduced from $2800.00 a month down to only $770.00 a month because of a flaw in the disability pension. This flaw in the retirement was addressed years ago by our father who questioned the department.
The senior benefits representative of the department wrote a letter to our father stating, “Your retirement will never be reduced, you will keep your pension along with cost of living increases for the rest of your life. Don’t believe what you are hearing, I’m the one who dispurses the pension checks each month and you will never be reduced.” Needless to say, his pension was still dramatically reduced, and the benefits department stated, “Sorry, but we made a mistake.”
He immediately took this letter to the department and demanded his retirement be reinstated. They agreed this was wrong and was a major flaw in the pension plan, but said there is nothing they can do. He demanded the department reinstate his pension or he would contact a lawyer and take legal action against them to correct their mistake. The department replied “Sue us.”
This pending lawsuit has been going on for over two years now, and for almost the last three years, he has been receiving only a $770 pension check per month.
They were forced to sell their home of 16 years in Deep Creek Lake under market value so they would not have to lose it to foreclosure. They moved into Paulie's basement so they could survive this financial crisis.
Six months ago, Mom and Dad went from never making a late payment, to filing Bankruptcy. They were devastated.
After recently finding out about his illness, Dad contacted his lawyer to ask the department to speed up their civil case, taking into account the terminal prognosis of his disease. After this request, they received a letter from the department that stated the mediation hearing is set for March of 2011 (Next Spring!!!)! They are delaying on purpose knowing how dire his situation is. As you can sense we are infuriated with what the department has done to him.
Within a month of reducing his pension, my father met with the Chief of Police who became irate when he was enlightened to what happened to Dad's pension and stated, “No! That’s not right! We will take care of this right now!” It wasn't something that could be taken care of then. The Chief's hands were tied since it was a contractual issue.
That meeting was two and a half years ago.
NOTHING was ever taken care of by Metro. The FOP Union was also contacted and all parties agreed that this is a major “Wrong” in the pension, unfortunately their hands were also tied at that point.
Metro is dragging its feet hoping that our dad will just go away.
Metro is dragging its feet hoping that our dad will just go away.
