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7 04, 2021

UK universities propose cutting benefits to save pension scheme

2021-04-07T16:22:15-07:00April 7th, 2021|Categories: Defined Benefit Plans|Tags: , |

By Bethan Staton and Josephine Cumbo Source: Financial Times Hundreds of thousands of university sector staff in the UK would see their retirement benefits cut under employer proposals to avert “unaffordable” rises in contributions as the sector struggles with a years-long pensions crisis.  Plans outlined on Wednesday by Universities UK, which represents more than 340 higher education sector employers, would see guaranteed pensions for about 200,000 of the 460,000 members become less generous, with higher-earning academics taking the biggest [...]

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14 05, 2019

Feds approve pension cuts to W.Pa. Teamsters fund; 22,000 ballots to be mailed

2019-05-14T13:04:22-07:00May 14th, 2019|Categories: Defined Benefit Plans|Tags: , |

About 22,000 ballots will be mailed to pension plan participants in Western Pennsylvania for a vote on a 30% benefit cut proposed by the plan’s board. The ballots are being authorized after the U.S. Department of Treasury approved the Western Pennsylvania Teamsters and Employers Pension Fund’s request submitted last September to cut benefits. The plan represents about 17,000 retirees and 5,000 people who are working and paying into the fund. In a letter dated May 7, the Treasury Department sent [...]

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18 05, 2018

Some Union Retirees Could See Pension Benefits Cut 90%, PBGC Chief Warns

2018-05-18T17:20:49-07:00May 18th, 2018|Categories: Defined Benefit Plans|Tags: , |

Some union retirees could see their pension benefits cut by 90 percent, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Director Tom Reeder warned today. A retiree getting $8,000 annually now could be cut to less than $1,000.That is a danger, cautioned Reeder, if Congress doesn’t act soon to shore up troubled multiemployer union pension plans and the PBGC’s insurance program that backs them up. A multiemployer pension plan is typically a workplace retirement savings program created by a union and companies in [...]

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16 03, 2018

A Case Against Cuts to Public Pensions

2018-03-16T10:15:08-07:00March 16th, 2018|Categories: Pension Funding|Tags: , |

Dave Low is the chairman of Californians for Retirement Security, a coalition of public employee unions that was founded about 15 years ago to defend workers against calls for pension cuts. Today, with retirement costs ballooning, the pressure is sure to rise. While the California Legislature and leading candidates for governor have carefully avoided any substantive discussion on pensions, cities are struggling. Rising retiree costs have forced many cities and school districts to divert more of today’s budgets to [...]

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23 10, 2017

Republicans Consider Sharp Cut in 401(k) Contribution Limits

2017-10-23T15:47:12-07:00October 23rd, 2017|Categories: 401(k)|Tags: , |

House Republicans are considering a plan to sharply reduce the amount of income American workers can save in tax-deferred retirement accounts as part of a broad effort to rewrite the tax code, according to lobbyists, tax consultants and congressional Democrats. It is unclear if Republicans will ultimately include a cap on contributions in the tax bill that they are expected to release in the coming weeks. Such a move would almost certainly prompt a vocal backlash from middle-class workers [...]

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10 03, 2017

Threatened pension cuts will test Trump ties to U.S. Rust Belt voters

2017-03-10T19:01:19-08:00March 10th, 2017|Categories: Pension Funding|Tags: |

Karen Friedman has been traveling the country speaking at meetings of retired union members – and they are angry. What riles them is the prospect of deep cuts in promised pension benefits, and they are hoping for relief from President Donald Trump. “Many of them were Trump voters,” said Friedman, executive vice president and policy director at the Pension Rights Center (PRC), a nonprofit advocacy group. “These are the folks the president campaigned for, and he made promises to [...]

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6 05, 2016

Treasury rejects Teamster pension cuts

2016-05-06T21:06:46-07:00May 6th, 2016|Categories: Pension Funding|Tags: , , |

The U.S. Treasury Department has rejected the deep retirement cuts sought by the ailing Teamsters Central States Pension Fund, to the cheers of more than a quarter million trucking retirees and workers around the country. The government’s decision Friday does nothing to solve the dire financial problems of the Central States fund, which faces insolvency in 10 years. Some say the retirement fund’s only hope is a federal bailout. Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator appointed by Treasury to implement the [...]

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1 02, 2016

Unions object to TVA effort to cut pension benefits

2016-02-01T21:41:52-08:00February 1st, 2016|Categories: Pension Funding|Tags: , |

The biggest labor unions representing employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority are balking at a plan to revamp and trim pension benefits for agency employees and retirees, claiming the utility’s leaders are punishing workers while getting fat paychecks and retirement benefits themselves. But TVA President Bill Johnson insists changes and caps in retirement benefits are needed to close a $6 billion funding shortfall without having to raise electric rates in the Tennessee Valley. […]

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8 10, 2015

Large pension fund files plan to cut retiree benefits under new law

2015-10-08T00:26:42-07:00October 8th, 2015|Categories: Defined Benefit Plans, Pension Funding|Tags: , |

Nearly 300,000 former truckers and their families would suffer significant losses under a proposal that uses a controversial new law to cut once sacrosanct pension benefits. The huge Central States Pension Fund, which administers retirement benefits for some former and current Teamster truckers, said the reductions are the only way to save the plan from insolvency. […]

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21 05, 2015

No money left in this year’s budget to restore pension cut, N.J. officials say

2015-05-21T21:45:52-07:00May 21st, 2015|Categories: Pension Funding|Tags: , , |

In a rare moment of agreement, analysts for Governor Christie and the Legislature’s independent budget office said Tuesday that no matter how the state Supreme Court rules in a dispute over funding New Jersey’s pension system, there is no more money left this year to restore more than $1 billion that Christie cut from a payment to the retirement plans. Using his veto powers at the start of the fiscal year, Christie  reduced a $2.25 billion payment to $681 [...]

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