FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Contact: Midwest Pension Rights Project, St. Louis
 Suzanne Lagomarcino 314-725-5862 or Joni Ott 314-725-1516


Help is there when a pension gets "lost"

November 30, 2004 -- ST. LOUIS -- For those who know they are owed money from a pension plan but don't know how to go about getting it, there is help.

The Midwest Pension Rights Project, a free program of the nonprofit Gateway OWL, has assisted in its clients receiving $5 million in pension funds in the last five years. We help clients in an area where no other free help exists, said Joni Ott, managing attorney of the project.

"There are a lot of people out there who don't know where their pensions are because of all the corporate mergers - companies are bought and sold, bought and sold again," Ott said. "Or they haven't updated their address with their employer, and 20 years later, when it comes to their pension, they don't know where to begin to look."

The program offers basic advice about pension laws and rights, information on survivor benefits, and rights of divorcing people, assistance resolving pension problems with employers and proving work credits and referrals to experienced pension attorneys.

Often individuals who have rights to collect pensions have a difficult time finding the paperwork that proves it. A company, for example, that goes out of business presents a challenge.

"A lot of our job is chasing down the document," Ott said.

There is no national database of pension documents - a fact the Project is trying to change.

Another issue is organizations that are sometimes slow to respond to requests for help before being prodded with a letter from a lawyer.

"It's hard for an individual to fight a pension issue," Ott said. "And it would cost a fortune to pay somebody hourly for that."

Ott and her assistant, Robin Price, split the load of 40 to 50 cases that are typically active at a time.

Though the Project is funded primarily through a grant from the Federal Administration on Aging, its services are provided only to everyone who calls, Ott said.

To contact the Midwest Pension Rights Project, call (877) 725-1516.
 
Recent Project successes include recovery of a pension valued at $27,833 for a 70 year-old widow who had tried for several years to obtain her survivor benefit. The company repeatedly refused her a benefit because her husband stated on his retirement application that he was divorced. After the Midwest Pension Rights Project intervened, the widow began receiving her benefit within six months. In another case, the Project worked to get a former union factory worker his pension, valued at $21,360, after his company went bankrupt in the 1980s. He had been told, upon retirement, that there were no records to support his work history.
 
The Midwest Pension Rights Project, with offices in St. Louis and Chicago, is the only free service in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska that provides attorneys to answer questions about pension benefits, obtain unclaimed pension or survivor benefits, appeal denial of pension rights and maintain a library of pension plans from nationally known companies. All work is handled over the telephone. The Midwest Pension Rights Project can be reached toll-free at 1-877-725-1516.