Looking for some advice on how to proceed with this.
Last summer I was sent a letter to my parents’ house from a collection agency stating that I owe $8900 bucks to them and immediate payment was required. The letter was only labeled “LANCASTER”, no social security number or any information. So I sent them a letter back saying that I didn’t owe any debt to anyone and that they needed to provide paperwork substanciating any debt. I didn’t hear anything from them back, they just sent a bill for $10,500 due immediately. So I contacted them back and they made me verify my contact information and said that they need my social security number to dispute the debt, so I reluctantly gave it to them.
A month later I get a letter from them saying that they forwarded my dispute to the Department of the Treasury, and they would provide me with either a letter stating I didn’t owe the funds or a letter of explanation about the debt. Eventually I got a letter from Treasury stating it was from the Department of Education. I thought this was awesome, because I am a federal aid administrator and I have access to their system and can talk their language and get whatever needs to be fixed taken care of as I do not owe bad debt to anyone, much less the Department of Education, as I would not be allowed adminsitrator access to their computer database systems if I was a bad debtor on it.
I called ED (the Department of Education’s nickname for itself is ED) and they told me that they didn’t have any idea what debt the collections agency and Treasury was talking about, and they would be happy to send a letter to me that I could send to the collections agency that stated so. So I did, and printed out my entire account history with the ED and sent it to them. The collections agency lost it the first time, but I worked with a lady to get the paperwork to her. She looked it over and told me that it was pretty obvious that I didn’t owe the debt and she would forward it on to Treasury. She asked me if Treasury had been garnishing my wages and tax returns all these years. They hadn’t of course, so I told her so. She was surprised but she said that it was all good and everything was peachy and if she heard back from Treasury they would let me know.
So fast forward to April 6th, when I finally get around to doing my tax return. The IRS tells me that I will have my $1500 return on April 16th direct deposited into my credit union account. Rock and roll I think, because I have had some unexpected expenses pop up that have really drained my savings. This morning it wasn’t in my account. I called the IRS to see if they had the correct number, and they tell me that Treasury garnished the whole thing and applied it to my bad debt of $20,000 with ED. The IRS hears my story, the rep that I talk to kind of freaks out that it jumped from $8900 to $20,000 so quickly, and tells me to call immediately to Treasury as they will probably be garnishming my wages as well because both of those are set up at the same time.
I call Treasury, tell them whats going on. They tell me to call the collection agency because the second dispute (the one with the ED paperwork saying I don’t owe ED) was still being processed at ED. I tell them that the letter originally came from ED and I don’t understand why they need themselves to mail a letter to themselves saying that I don’t owe themselves any money. I asked Treasury where the garnishment went, who it paid, and all they would say was that it went to ED and I would have to call them. I tried to explain that ED just told me five minutes ago that they had no idea where the funds would actually go and that Treasury needed to tell me where the funds went and who was reviewing the dispute. Treasury told me that I was not allowed to have the information, I owed the debt and I would have to pay them back and that was that. They said that I would need to contact ED or the collection agency. I call the collection agency, they have no idea whats going on, tell me that they aren’t getting the funds because they don’t receive funds on federal debts. ED says they still have no record of me owing any money, and they don’t receive funds from Treasury that way either.
Anyway, the ED people were concerned because if Treasury reports that I have bad ED debt, I lose my job at the college automatically because I will not be allowed access to any federal Title IV computer databank systems, which is a non-negotiable requirement of my job here. They forward me to the Department of Education’s Ombudsman’s Office, which has no idea whats going on or how to even get started fixing it, but they were making my case the highest priority and will be getting back to me either today or Monday. The Ombudsman’s Office thinks that Treasury is going to garnish my $8000 tax credit for being a first time homebuyer as well, which was going to be my next savings pool coupled with my tax return.
But that leaves me right here in this same boat. I have officially to my name about 4 dollars since the substancial savings went into the unexpected expenses, and my wages will be garnished up to 100%, but nobody at Treasury will tell me how much I actually owe on this mystery debt, or how much they were going to take out of my paycheck. They only gave me an account number after I told them that I wouldn’t hang up without one. The account number is an eight digit number and letters affair that has no meaning to the collection agency or ED. Its no help.
What do you guys think I should do? I am specifically not asking for legal advice, as that is not allowed here and I might end up having to get a lawyer involved anyway, but I am interested in who anyone might think I could voice this concern to and have it more effectively handled, as ED is really trying, Treasury told me in different words “fuck off, deadbeat” and the collections agency seems not to understand why Treasury is acting that way.
And if anyone survived reading this weird and hastily typed OP, I appreciate it.
