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Pension Rights Center Receives Major Grant
The Atlantic Philanthropies have awarded the Pension Rights Center a five-year $6 million grant to support the Center’s efforts to develop a network of pension assistance services to help individuals throughout the country obtain the retirement benefits they have earned, and to develop and implement short- and long-term retirement policies to ensure adequate retirement incomes for older adults. Read the press release announcing the grant.
Conversation on Coverage Releases Final Report
The Conversation on Coverage, the Center’s unprecedented public policy initiative to increase pensions and retirement savings for low- and moderate-income American workers, recently released its final recommendations in Covering the Uncovered at a congressional briefing in the U.S. Capitol. The Conversation’s innovative common-ground proposals were developed over a six-year period by what the Wall Street Journal described as “an unlikely coalition of employer, retiree and business groups.” The report can be viewed at www.conversationoncoverage.org.
New Chart Compares Poverty Among Older Adults by Country
A new PRC chart compares the percentages of older adults living in poverty in countries around the world. The chart reveals that 15 percent of older Americans live in poverty. This number is much greater than the percentage of older adults living in poverty in other countries. The chart can be found in the International Pensions section of our web site.
Social Security Fix-It Book
The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has published the Social Security Fix-It Book, a colorful and easy-to-read summary of the leading proposals for eliminating the financing shortfalls in Social Security. PRC Board member and co-author, Alicia Munnell, describes the book as "everything the earnest but over-burdened citizen needs to know." The Social Security Fix-It Book and other publications are featured in the Publications section of our web site.
Paper Challenges Conventional Wisdom on Participation in 401(k) Plans
PRC consultant John Turner recently co-authored a paper titled Why Some Workers Don’t Take 401(k) Plan Offers: Inertia Versus Economics which finds that many workers with low or moderate earnings decline to participate in 401(k) plans for economic reasons, and not because they don’t get around to signing up for their company’s plan, or “inertia,” as other studies have found.
Pension Rights Center Submits Comments to Department of Energy
In comments submitted to the Department of Energy (DOE), the Center urged the DOE to continue its long-time practice of reimbursing contractors for expenses related to traditional defined benefit pension plans. Under a proposed cost-cutting policy, the DOE would only reimburse contractors for expenses related to defined contribution and other retirement savings plans such as 401(k) plans. Read the Center’s comments to the DOE on this proposal.
Pension Projects Recognized for Helping Retirees
Two of the six regional Administration on Aging counseling projects were recently featured in newspaper articles. The Ohio Pension Rights Project was featured in an article in the Akron Beacon Journal for its work in helping retirees recover more than $2.7 million in lost pension benefits in the last six months. The New England Pension Assistance Project was featured in the Providence Journal in an article detailing how it helped a retiree find his missing pension. The Center’s National Pension Assistance Resource Center provides training and technical assistance to the regional projects, which serve 25 states. For a list of other pension information and counseling projects, visit the Help section of our web site.
PRC News provides periodic updates on Pension Rights Center initiatives, as well as information about the activities of PRC board members, staff, consultants, and the network of regional pension counseling projects.
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