A woman called the Ombudsman complaining that she had been trying to get a document from the Division of Retirement and Benefits for over eight months without success. The complainant needed documentation of a withdrawal her soon-to-be-ex-husband made from his PERS account many years before. The complainant said she had contacted DRB over half a dozen times and front line staff assured her repeatedly that a supervisor would provide the information she requested. However, no supervisor ever contacted her and the document she had requested never arrived. The complainant had a divorce hearing scheduled to occur two days later, and she was desperate for the documentation because it had bearing on how finances would be split between the parties. The Ombudsman contacted the agency and spoke with a supervisor who acknowledged that he had been assigned to address the issue with the complainant and had failed to do so timely. The supervisor immediately drafted a written response to the complainant and emailed it to her the same day. Unfortunately, the content of the letter undermined the complainant’s position that a portion of the money her husband had withdrawn from PER was due to her. However, the Ombudsman closed the complaint as resolved because the agency was able to provide the documentation to the complainant prior to her scheduled hearing. (A2016-2144)
