PRC In the News
That solid pension benefit? It may be subject to change
In the fine print of the federal budget compromise, troubled pension plans now have the right to reduce benefits
Pension law change alarms retiree groups
Forty years after Congress took steps to guarantee that retirees get the pensions they were promised, another generation of lawmakers has taken a chisel to those legal protections.
Former Triangle Wire workers fight to retain pensions
The New England Pension Assistance Project is featured in this article about a mass recoupment case, in which a pension plan overpaid several retirees for years and now those pensions are being cut or eliminated entirely. In some cases, the plan is also demanding that the retiree pay back hundred of dollars at once.
New federal law allows pension cuts
More than 100,000 New Yorkers could face cuts in their union pensions in coming years, thanks to a provision that was tucked into Congress’ omnibus spending bill this month to keep the federal government funded for another year. The measure would, under certain conditions, allow cuts to what are known as multi-employer pensions.
Merry Christmas, Seniors. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow they may cut your pension.
House Republicans quietly snuck in a number of egregious add-ons to the spending bill. One of those add-ons allows employers of certain companies whose pension funding is in trouble to simply cut the amount of retirement pension they promised retirees.
Decision on pension payout will last a lifetime
Take the money or wait? That’s the $90,402 question The New York Times Co. has put to me as it offers to buy out my right to the lifelong monthly pension I earned when the parent of the Times newspaper also owned the Globe.
Multiemployer plans can cut benefits to stay solvent
Trustees of distressed multiemployer pension funds got new tools to avert insolvency in a package of reforms approved by Congress in mid-December, including the right to reduce benefits for active workers and retirees in deeply underfunded plans.
New law lets some pension plans cut promised benefits
For some retirees, Congress has played the Grinch this holiday season. Tucked into the federal spending bill were provisions that will allow certain struggling multi-employer pension plans to reduce benefits already being received by retirees.
Prudential Piles on the Corporate Pensions
Big U.S. companies have found a way to escape the burden of ballooning pension obligations: pay an insurance company to take them over.
After the new federal pension rules: What retirees need to know
Buried in the $1.1 trillion “Cromnibus” legislation signed this week by President Barack Obama was a provision that aims to head off a looming implosion of multiemployer pension plans – traditional defined benefit plans jointly funded by groups of employers. The pension reforms affect only retirees in struggling multiemployer pension plans, but any retiree living […]
ERISA Changes Passed as Part of Controversial Spending Bill
In one fell swoop last week, a once-sacrosanct tenet of the 1974 omnibus pension law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (more commonly known by its acronym, ERISA), was overturned. For its sponsors, the measure meant saving troubled multiemployer pensions heading for insolvency. For others, a change to the 40-year law that many believe banned […]
Pension cuts helped keep the government open, but they hurt many retired women
On Nov. 14, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. reported that 200 of the 1,400 multi-employer plans covering 1 million participants are at risk of failing within the next decade. The PBGC is worried about this because it becomes responsible for the pension obligations of these failed plans.
