Administration on Aging to Help Senior Citizens Get
More From Their Pension Programs
AoA awards $1.6 million to heal older Americans
understand and exercise their pension rights
July 13, 2010 Helping senior citizens understand
and take advantage of their pension rights is the goal of a new program
by the Administration on Aging, which has awarded $1.2 million in grants
to counseling agencies and will use $421,253 to fund a National Pension
Assistance Resource Center.
Today, there are more than 700,000 private, as well
as thousands of public, pension and retirement plans in the United
States.
Given that an employee may have worked for several
employers, which may have merged, sold their plans, or gone bankrupt, it
is very difficult for the average person to know where to get help in
finding out whether or not he or she is receiving all of his or her
pension benefits, according to a Webpage on the new program.
AoAs Pension Counseling and Information Program
will promote the financial security of older individuals and enhances
their choice and independence by empowering them to make wise decisions
with respect to pensions and savings plans.
The program assists older Americans in accessing
information about their retirement benefits and helps them to negotiate
with former employers or pension plans for due compensation.
Awards of $200,000 each have been made to six
regional pension counseling projects, covering 27 states, with proposed
expansion to include two more states (Indiana and New Mexico) over the
three-year grant period.
In addition, the National Pension Assistance
Resource Center, which will provide critical training and technical
support to the projects, as well as to state and area agencies on aging,
Aging and Disability Resource Centers, and legal services providers, has
been awarded $421,253, according to a news release.
We know that many seniors across the country are
concerned about their pensions and their retirement savings, said
Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee.
These pension counseling projects will increase
the number of older Americans educated about pension and other
retirement benefits, with particular emphasis upon underserved and
hard-to-reach seniors, including those with limited English
proficiency. By promoting the financial security of older persons, we
empower them to make better choices in planning for their future needs
including long term care.
Services provided by the Administration on Agings
(AoA) pension counseling projects include:
● direct legal assistance to individuals pursing pension claims;
locating pension plans that have been lost as a result of mergers,
acquisitions, and terminations;
● answering questions about complex provisions of pension plans; and
● making targeted referrals to other professionals for assistance.
The Resource Center will assist individuals living
in areas not currently served by an AoA pension counseling project by
expanding and maintaining a nationwide dataset of pension information
and assistance resources, as well as a web-based pension assistance and
referral system.
The AoA first funded pension counseling and
information projects in 1993 and the projects became a permanent program
under the Older Americans Act in 2000. Since their establishment, the
projects have directly served more than 35,000 individuals, resulting in
nearly $100 million in retirement benefits recovered for individual
claimants.
The following organizations have been awarded
pension counseling grants:
July 13, 2010 Helping senior citizens understand
and take advantage of their pension rights is the goal of a new program
by the Administration on Aging, which has awarded $1.2 million in grants
to counseling agencies and will use $421,253 to fund a National Pension
Assistance Resource Center.