Project aids seniors in recovering pensions
Shawn Clubb of the Suburban Journals
Southwest City Journal
October 26, 2005

Money can be tight once you reach retirement age, making a pension a handy benefit, but some people entitled to them are not collecting.

That's why the Midwest Pension Rights Project was created.

Joni Ott, project director, said there are many situations in which people might have trouble collecting a pension.

One common case involves a spousal benefit that someone would get after a spouse with a pension dies. Sometimes couples will separate and not get divorced, but the spouse will claim they are divorced to get a larger pension. Then, when that person dies, the surviving spouse will not get the survivor benefit even though they are still entitled to it.

Ott cited one such case for which she was able to get the surviving spouse her benefit and get money for the years that she had not received it. The company agreed to pay it all.

"By not getting proper documentation, they did not do their fiduciary duty to protect her interests," Ott said.

Another type of case involves workers who left an employer years before retirement and now need to find out about a pension. Ott said these people might not know where to look.

"The number has been disconnected. There's no one there. They have no idea how to find it," Ott said.

Sometimes a former employer has merged with another company, moved to another location or shut down.

When companies merge or close, they might terminate a pension plan, but purchase annuities for pension eligible employees, Ott said. Sometimes people's names will get left off the list of employees who should receive the annuities.

Ott said the Midwest Pension Rights Project can help people locate former employers or find out about their pensions and help them fill out the forms.

The project is funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging and sponsored locally by the Older Women's League. It has recovered more than $5 million in benefits for people through its St. Louis office in the 12 years since it was started.

Ott said the typical amount recovered is a pension of $100 to $200 per month.

"It's not the type of work that would appeal to private attorneys," she said. "Nobody was really helping these people, because it wasn't really economical to do so. To the individuals we help, the impact of it is huge."

The process of recovering a pension through the project starts when a person calls the office. If the staff thinks the information given over the phone merits further investigation, it will mail out a form asking for authorization to pursue it.

Once the office received authorization, it could take three months before investigation starts. From then it takes three to seven months to finish.

Anyone who believes they are due a pension that they are not receiving should contact the office at (314) 725-1516 in St. Louis or toll free at (877) 725-1516 in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kansas and Mississippi..