Teacher Retirement System checks delayed for some members

Teacher Retirement System of Texas payment checks are being delayed to hundreds of members.

TRS is the benefit plan for more than a million current and former school employees in Texas.

Rostain Wallace and her husband Scotty are trying to figure out how to keep the lights on after waiting for a check from the teacher retirement system for 9 weeks.

"First things first, food, groceries, keep the cars running,” Wallace said. "Maybe not turkey this year."

With a new job offer in hand, Rostain put in her resignation with Lewisville ISD Sept. 8. She'd been with the district 15 years as a teacher's assistant. But the new job offer ended up falling through.

Wallace said she knew she had a check on the way from TRS to see her through another job search. But after weeks went by, she began to get frustrated with the changing responses she says she'd get from TRS.

 “I was like is there a supervisor? They were like well we are so swamped and busy, we could send you to the voicemail,” Wallace said. “I left a message, still nothing.”

She continued to call week after week, spending hours on hold when she could have been job searching. That's when she reached out to FOX4.

“I've been out of work since 9/8. With no pay. I have bills to pay, things that are behind, people on hold, plus the holidays are here,” Wallace said.

FOX4 contacted TRS and discovered Wallace was not alone.

The agency says a glitch with a technology upgrade is causing problems for former employees in about 300 school districts -- nearly a quarter of the districts statewide.

"We've added more phone counselors in an effort to handle the backlog and are also reaching out to members and retirees through email,” a TRS spokesman said.

Hours after FOX4 talked to TRS, Wallace received a response.

"She said I'm so sorry, I received a call from Lori Brown, and wanted to let you know were doing everything we can to get this rectified,” Wallace said. “We're so sorry."

TRS says the computer problem is not affecting pension checks, only refund checks for employees who leave school districts before retiring.  The agency says it is working with its software vendor and hopes to have the problem resolved by the end of November.