origin of UCSC Survivor Work group
origin of UCSC Survivor Work group
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A brief history
A brief history
The case of a Survivor having to wait 9-months to obtain Survivor benefits after the death of the UCSC Emeriti retiree spouse happened just before the April 30, 2020 CUCEA/CUCRA Zoom meeting. Questions were raised by Professor Emeritus Todd Wipke at that meeting: “Does UCRAYS have a Survivor Process Tracker?” The answer: “No, but it sounds like a good idea, however Survivors do not have access to UCRAYS until their paperwork is completed.” “What process does RASC have to make sure a Survivor case does not get lost or suffer severe delay?” The answer: “We have no such system.” Finally, RASC mentioned “The 9-month case is being investigated.”
That case raised many more questions: Is that 9-month case an outlier? What is the normal or average Survivor Benefit Process delay? What are the statistical parameters for the Survivor Benefit Process? Can the delay be broken down by source and analyzed? And what do Survivors think of the Survivor Benefit Process? To collect the data needed to answer these questions Lee Duffus, a past President of the UCSC Retiree Association, joined me, Todd Wipke, in forming the Survivor Work Group.
Todd Wipke created Survivor Tracker to organize the collected data and compute the time between events and total elapsed time dynamically. This evolved into the UCSC Benet Survivor Benefit Tracker and Survivor Advocate system. Members of the Chazey consulting team working for RASC observed a demonstration of UCSC Benet and concluded they wanted a RASC version of Benet to track cases within RASC. Wipke created RASC Benet and gave RASC a royalty-free license to use it within RASC.
Data Collected
Data Collected
1 date of death
2 contacted RASC
3 received Survivor Forms Packet
4 submitted Forms and Documents
5 RASC requested more info #1 (if they did)
6 RASC requested more info #2 (if they did)
7 received Award Letter
8 received back pension payments
9 received first regular monthly pension payment
Time in days from Date of Death until Survivor Pension received. UCSC Survivors 2018-2020. Mean 109 days, median 84, N=11. Recent data gives mean 155 days, median 122 days, N=13. Note: Survivor receives no income during this Survivor Benefit Process wait.
This report is the first to show the plight of UC Survivors trying to obtain their Survivor Benefits. The first step described in the Survivor Beneficiary Handbook for Family Members Beneficiaries of Former UC Employees document is for the Survivor to notify the Retirement Administration Service Center (RASC) of the death. This normally occurs within a couple weeks. RASC does not send an acknowledgement. It takes on average 39 days from notifying RASC of the death before the Survivor receives the Survivor Packet of forms to complete. The Survivor normally returns the completed forms in a few days. RASC does not send the Survivor an acknowledgement of having received the completed forms. Then the Survivor waits on average 45 days before receiving the Award Letter, followed by direct deposit of back unpaid pension to the Date of Death, the Basic Death Benefit of $7,500, and later on the 1st of the month the Regular monthly Survivor Pension benefits. The Survivor has no income during this process (on average 109 to 155 days), adding to the stress of the Survivor.
See The UCSC Survivor Benefit Process Experience 2018-2020 report for the complete details of how the data was collected, analyzed, and interpreted. The SWG concluded that RASC is an online business without online customer courtesy or communication practices. The Survivor is a forgotten class, not an employee, not a retiree, not familiar with UC administration, without their spouse/partner to help, without an advocate. RASC has no local campus office, and requires all interaction by telephone, which has not been reliable, hour long delays. Automation could provide better communications.
Current UCSC Survivor Benefits Process Statistics as of Today
Current UCSC Survivor Benefits Process Statistics as of Today
Current UCSC Survivor Benefits Statistics as of Today.
Each Survivor reported the date they reached each of the 11 status steps. The mean time before the Survivor receives any payment is 4 months. Half of the Survivors wait longer, and the average is 5 months. Survivors that did not receive a pension are not included in these statistics
UCSC Survivor Work Group Accomplishments
UCSC Survivor Work Group Accomplishments
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