Small Pension Has Big Value with Mid-America Project’s Help

Small Pension Has Big Value with Mid-America Project’s Help

A recent success story from the Mid-America Pension Project demonstrates that even a very small monthly pension can pay big dividends and is worth fighting for, especially with help from a pension counseling project.

The Mid-America Pension Project is one of six counseling projects supported by the Administration on Community Living that provide free critical assistance to people with retirement benefit problems in 31 states. The attorneys at Mid-America work to protect and promote the retirement security of workers, retirees and their families in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

In 1991, Mrs. C’s husband was killed in a car crash at the age of 49. Mrs. C, who was 34 at that time, was devastated.

Soon thereafter, her husband’s employer sent her a letter saying that she was entitled to two surviving spouse benefits: a benefit of $225 and another small pension. The letter explained that Mrs. C could start the benefits in 1998 and provided the contact information.

In 1998, when she applied for her benefits, she was told that she was only entitled to $225 a month. The plan said that it lacked any information about the small pension benefit that Mrs. C had been told she would get.

Mrs. C sent the plan the letters she had received earlier, but her husband’s company had been split up into small subsidiaries, and the plan couldn’t find any documents about her small pension.

In 2001, Mrs. C resumed her effort to locate the small pension, but, by that time, her husband’s company had shut down. Regrettably, Mrs. C decided to give up pursuing what she perceived then as a pension of very modest value.

In 2022, Mrs. C, following the advice of her financial planner, contacted the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to inquire about her small pension. About a year later, the PBGC told her that it didn’t have her benefit.

Fortunately, Mrs. C was still determined to get the full pension she believed she was entitled to. She contacted the Mid-America Pension Project for help.

The project’s attorney who took her case made a claim to the PBGC and resubmitted the same paperwork that Mrs. C had previously submitted. The attorney also included Mrs. C’s old tax returns showing that she had not received the benefit. After several phone calls and emails to the PBGC, the PBGC informed the attorney it discovered that it had taken over the pension of Mrs. C’s husband’s company and had located Mrs. C’s benefit.

Ultimately, the PBGC determined that, applying compound interest over the many years that the pension payments were delayed, it now owed Mrs. C backpay liability of $28,285 and a pension payment of $155, which she was entitled to receive every month for the rest of her life.

Mrs. C was elated. She was going to use the $28,285 for much needed home improvements. She said she was delighted to learn that the small pension that she almost gave up on turned out to make such a big difference for her.

Mrs. C thanked the project’s attorney, telling the attorney that she (Mrs. C) would never have received the money without the Mid-America Pension Project’s help and persistence.

Since its inception in 1993, the Pension Counseling and Information Program has recovered over $320 million in retirement benefits and assisted more than 72,000 individuals. The Pension Rights Center is the resource center to the projects, providing legal and programmatic support.

This publication was supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $648,342 funded by ACL/HHS and $236,144 funded by non-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.