Problem with a Flexible Spending Account- dependent claim?

Question

I submitted the last bill $1000 for FSA-Dependent account on January 15th and i am told that the deadline for that was Jan-10th.

Do i lose this amount?

A little background: My wife had a car accident and i was away from work and spending my time at the hospital after her surgery since the beginning of this year.(2007)

Please i need help? What are my rights? I dont want to lose my hard earned $1000 :-((

Answer 1

FSA plan administrators seem to be doing their best to deny people their rightful money at the moment. You have until March 31st. There is no debate about it. If they give you a hard time, write to them and ask them to show you the law.

Do not let these money-grabbing bloodsuckers away with this.

Answer 2

I don't use it. I'm not sure how I would ever plan accordingly. There are benefits and risks, and the first poster pretty much summed those up. Supposedly you can even get reimbursed for OTC drugs through the plan we have. I know people here who use it and like it. But we don't really have any prescriptions we take on a routine basis, and all the other medical stuff - I couldn't put a dollar amount to that. We both have insurance, so we rarely pay anything at all anyway (secondary ins. even pays our co-pays). Angela is not in day care anymore, and we are not planning to send either of the girls back after my maternity leave. For us it wouldn't be worth it at all. I do know that, under certain circumstances, one of the benefits is that if you were to request - say - $5,000 be put in and you used all that up before you paid it all off... if you got let go from your employer, they couldn't come after you for the money. (I don't know if everyone's works the same, but my company puts all the money in at the beginning of the year, and you pay it off over 12 months through payroll deduction....)

Answer 3

My FSA account allows us until March I think to submit the claims. You may want to call them and ask for it to be looked at again and explain your circumstances. I don't know how flexible your flexible spending account people will be. It never hurts to ask, and if the person you speak to ask (nicely) to speak to a supervisor. child care is able to be claimed on your taxes though.

Answer 4

That is a strange date for the cutoff. My cutoff for submitting prior year claims is March 31st.

But if that is the cutoff date, than yes you have lost the money. I would check again. Also with the circumstances you should ask for a "hardship" exception from your plan administrator.

Answer 5

You have 90 days after the plan year ends to submit a claim. When did your plan year end? Typically, it is Dec. 31st and if that is the case you have until march 31st to submit a claim.