FSA Plan Year Not Communicated

[blaferriere]

What is the name of your state? Wisconsin

I am an employee of an S Corp which uses an HR outsourcing firm for Health Care and other fringe benefits such as an FSA 125 administration. My hire date to the HR firm is July 2004. I submitted an FSA reimbursement for day care in June 2005, and they now tell me the plan year end date was december 2004. I have no employee handbook or other documentation that ever declares the plan end date. Now, instead of thinking I'm several months (including the 90 day grace period) from the "use it or lose" time, they tell me I lose the money.

If I never received information on the plan end date, is there a case against the firm for not handling the administration of the FSA account formally? What documentation are they supposed to provide me as the plan administrators?

Regards,

-Bob

 

[Beth3]

I have no employee handbook or other documentation that ever declares the plan end date. When you enrolled in the Plan and completed the salary deferral paperwork, surely that must have indicated the Plan Year/time frame in which you were making the deferral. I've never seen FSA enrollment paperwork where that wasn't explicitly clear.

Now, instead of thinking I'm several months (including the 90 day grace period) from the "use it or lose" time, they tell me I lose the money. True.

If I never received information on the plan end date, is there a case against the firm for not handling the administration of the FSA account formally? What documentation are they supposed to provide me as the plan administrators? If you truly were never informed of the Plan Year (although it's nearly impossible to believe that wasn't at least indicated on the enrollment paperwork/salarly deferral form you completed), then you can contact the federal Department of Labor and file a complaint.

 

[blaferriere]

No Plan Date Communicated

I rechecked the employee handbook. I never received a copy of the plan enrollment form, so if the info was on that form it was done almost a year ago, and no communication since that time.

I received a single year end summary for 2004 that had the 2004 dollar balance with no indication of the plan year end.

I am interested in knowing the legal responsibility of an FSA 125 administrator, if any, in communication of the plan year end date. If the enrollment form is the only form of communication required the law is written poorly.

Thanks,

-Bob

 

[cbg]

I received a single year end summary for 2004 that had the 2004 dollar balance with no indication of the plan year end.

And receiving a year end summary didn't clue you that just maybe the year had ended?

The VERY large majority of plans, in my experience, use the calendar year.

 

[Beth3]

Bob, yes the employer/plan administrator must convey the key features of the Plan to the participants. If that didn't happen, then you're free to contact the federal DOL and file a complaint.

Again, though, I really can't imagine that at a minimum the salary deferral/payroll deduction authorization form didn't show the period of time for which you were electing the deferral, how many pay periods there were during that time, what your annual deduction was going to be per pay period, and so on. I've worked with a variety of FSA TPA's over the years and all their materials are pretty similiar.