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A
Woonsocket, R.I., woman in her
mid-seventies, with a husband
in poor health, had a
question.
People who had been
co-workers at an electric
manufacturing firm in the
1960s and ‘70s were
receiving monthly pensions,
but she was not. Why?
She had worked for the
company as long at they had
– in fact, she was the only
one who drove a car and she
therefore drove everyone else
to work. In January 2001 she
called the New England Pension
Assistance Project where
pension counselor, Marjorie
Murphy was assigned to her
case.
The
stakes were high.
The woman and her
husband lived on a combined
income of $1,100 a month, more
than half of which went to pay
their mortgage.
Even a small pension
could make an immense
difference.
The
search for evidence was
complicated by the fact that
the original firm had long ago
been swallowed up by another
company.
The new firm’s
benefits department had
records showing that the woman
had only worked for the old
firm for nine years (one short
of pension entitlement).
Worse, the insurance
firm handling the pension
showed
her as having worked only four
years.
“The discrepancy of
her starting date really
bothered me,” Murphy says.
“Records back then
weren’t kept very
accurately.”
She believed the
woman’s account of having
worked for the firm for more
than ten years.
Fortunately, the woman
found old W-2 forms which
showed she had started working
for the firm in 1963.
Even after that, it
took multiple follow-up phone
calls from Murphy to the
benefits department to obtain
a formal ruling on the
pension.
When the determination
was made, in March 2002, she
was found to be entitled to a
pension of $185.20 a month,
retroactive to 1991.
After
filling out a set of
complicated forms, she
received
a check for just under $25,000
in April.
Retrieval
of her pension enabled this
couple to pay off their
mortgage (automatically
doubling their disposable
monthly income even without
the ongoing monthly pension
payments) and buy a reliable
used car to replace the car
that was constantly breaking
down.
As Murphy says,
“It’s a very nice feeling
of satisfaction” to know
that she was able to provide
the needed support and
assistance.
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