Teachers screwed again...

[TreasonousBastard]

A $4,000 grant led them to teach tough subjects in poorer schools. For minor errors on forms, they were told to pay it back, with interest

Math teacher Maggie Webb said she mailed in her yearly certification forms on time, despite not receiving them from the company managing the program. The company, FedLoan, said it didn’t receive the paperwork, so she sent them again — but then was told it was too late. “I was working in a low-income school and I still am," Webb told NPR. "And I don't know why I'm being punished for that.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/28/596162853/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Reason CONs privatize stuff like this is so company takes the blame, buffers the CON politicians. nt

[Honeycombe8]

2. Figures.

I guess next time, if there is a next time, have proof of mailing and delivery. That costs. But we have to do it for income tax returns if we're snail mailing them.

I wonder if they can't electronically file those forms? That's automatic proof of submitting them.

[FakeNoose]

3. These mailing addresses are probably P.O. Boxes

You never get a person's name or address to respond to, it's always anonymous.

Just like this math teacher Maggie, you mail your forms repeatedly with no response, or they claim they never received them. I have found one way around this is to mail important stuff by certified mail with a reply postcard to return to me. (The cost may have gone up, but it used to be less than $1.00.) That way I have proof that the office did receive it, and someone's name is there to follow up with. Usually the person who signed the card is not a manager or decision-maker, but at least I can call and ask for that person. It's one way to short-cut the run around.

[arthurgoodwin]

6. The cost is a lot higher than you remember.

According to the US Postal Service, Notice 123, effective January 21, 2018:

Certified Mail - $3.45
Return Receipt - $2.75 (hard copy) or $1.50 (electronic)

There is a cheaper option:

Certificate of Mailing - $1.40

The "Certificate of Mailing" is purely proof of entering an item into the mail, it is not bar-coded, trackable, or considered to be proof of delivery for the IRS and other government organizations. The "Certified Mail" option IS bar-coded, trackable along entire path to recipient, and if delivered is considered proof of delivery; if it cannot be delivered you will receive notice to that effect.

A good on-line article that explains the difference between the two types of mail can be found at:

https://www.experts.com/Articles/Certified-Mail-Versus-Certificate-Of-Delivery-Whats-The-Difference-By-Peter-Wade

[FakeNoose]

8. OK thanks for this info

It's slightly cheaper than a Fedex or UPS overnight envelope. The Postal Service also offers a 2nd day Priority Mail delivery option and I believe the sender gets tracking info with that.

I still think it's worth it just to get the name of the person who signed for it.

[dlk]

4. This is What Vulture Capitalism and Privatization Look Like

Too often, they are bait and switch crimes combined with theft, specifically designed to enrich those at the very top. This is what Republicans are all about and have been for decades - the redistribution of American wealth, upward. It's time to take a page from the Republican playbook and sue for fraud.

[Igel]

7. It's what bureaucracy looks like.

My coworker fought with the IRS for years to get a FICA exemption reinstated for her boss after she accidentally withheld FICA tax from his pay for a few years.

For all the years she argued with the IRS, he (and his employer) had to continue paying FICA. After years of calling and writing and waiting she finally found somebody who said where the necessary paperwork would be. But that person couldn't actually request it, instead she had to open another request with another office and argue that she should be allowed to request and obtain a search for this particular record. That office was a couple of floors lower in the same IRS building. Many months later she finally had the form to fill out to request the paperwork that the IRS had all along. After nearly 4 years of wrestling with the IRS, she got a copy of the paperwork certifying that her boss was exempt from FICA. She made a copy and mailed it back, certified, to the same building it had been mailed to her from, but a couple of floors above. She spent another few months re-explaining to another IRS worker why, exactly, she'd filed that form, got paperwork to request reimbursement of an overpayment of taxes, explained again why the taxes were overpaid, and waited for that person's supervisor to get his supervisor to review the file before issuing a check and closing that case.

Her boss, months later, got a check for around $25k that had been improperly withheld.

A few months later the bookkeeper got a threatening notice from the IRS that FICA taxes had not been withheld from her boss' paycheck for the previous 10 years and there was a penalty being levied in addition to interest and back taxes, with a notice to reply by a certain date to avoid legal action and garnishing of wages. I swear, that poor woman nearly cried. She told her boss who just stared, shook his head, gave her the rest of the day off, and walked away, still shaking his head.

No vulture capitalism. No privatization. It's a feature of a large, mindless, brainless bureaucracy, and they can be private or public, capitalist or socialist, 1st world or 3rd world.

[MichMan]

5. Students that had papers refused because they were late might find this amusing in a way

Articles states the issues have been occurring for several years and it isn't new