DOE Contractor Overcomes Financial Issues Caused by Ex-Husband’s Drug Use

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Hearing and Appeals recently ruled on an appeal granting eligibility for access authorization to a DOE contractor who was initially denied due to financial issues. This case was a good example of overcoming events beyond your control and acting responsibly in resolving the issues. Here are the highlights of the appeal:

The contractor was married for ten years to the now ex-husband who over the last three years of the marriage started using illegal drugs. In order to support his habit, he started opening lines of credit under the contractor’s name and was not paying the household bills. Once she found out what he had been doing she divorced him, and started addressing the over 64K in delinquent debts. She retained a lawyer to help separate the debts for which she was responsible for and has been working on resolving them. In her appeal she was able to identify each debt, the cause for it, whose responsibility it was, and what was being done to resolve it if it was hers.

The judge in this case noted that on the surface the contractor’s financial situation appears dire and paints a picture of her not being able to manage her money or satisfy her debts. However, after digging into the cause of the debts and taking into consideration the contractor’s actions in taking responsibility to resolve them since her divorce, he opined the situation was largely due to the ex-husband and that his actions were beyond her control. This was a good case to show how to overcome financial issues due to a life event beyond your control. You can read the entire appeal summary here.