Change in Election

[Guest sphile]

We have a participant that was out on disability & not contributing to her FSA Medical. She was out of work for over 30 days & opted to change her election to a lower amount. Will this change also effect her annual election? She went from contributing $92.31 to $20 per pay. It is a biweekly pay schedule. Prior to the leave she had spent a good amount of money. Since she has changed her election amount, her annual election is very low. She only has about $3 left. Any help would be great!

Thanks!

[papogi]

If she had $92.31 per pay bi-weekly, that comes to $2400.06. This is the amount she is entitled to with dates of service from the start of the plan year up to the day before she changed the election. As of the day she changed her election, the new amount she has available is $92.31 times the number of pays deducted at that old rate plus $20.00 times the number of pays she will have deducted at that amount. She has access to that amount with any dates of service in the plan year, even prior to the disability. Understand that the total amount she can possibly get cannot be greater than $2400.06 (i.e., she doesn't get $2400.06 pus more when she changed her election).

[Guest sphile]

Thanks for your help! But I just am a bit confused now. She has the ability to spend the $2400.06 even though her election has changed? The system that we use calculated her new annual election as $1452.34. Year to date $1450 has been spent.

[papogi]

Because of the uniform reimbursement requirement for FSA's, if she can produce claims for $2400.06 with dates of service prior to the disability, she can get that amount.