Benefits Payable in Terminated Single-Employer Plans; Limitations on Guaranteed Benefits

Image via WikipediSUMMARY: This is a proposed rule to
amend PBGC’s regulation on Benefits
Payable in Terminated Single-Employer Plans. That regulation sets forth rules on PBGC’s guarantee of pension plan benefits, including rules on the phasein of the guarantee. The amendments implement section 403 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which provides that the phase-in period for the guarantee of  benefits that are contingent upon the occurrence of an ‘‘unpredictable contingent event,’’ such as a plant shutdown, starts no earlier than the date of the shutdown or other unpredictable contingent event.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 10, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be identified by Regulation Information Number (RIN 1212–AB18), and may be submitted by any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
• Follow the Web site instructions for submitting comments.
• E-mail: reg.comments@pbgc.gov.
• Fax: 202–326–4224.
• Mail or Hand Delivery: Legislative and Regulatory Department, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K Street, NW., Washington, DC 20005–4026.

PBGC will make all comments available on its Web site, http://www.pbgc.gov.

Copies of comments also may be obtained by writing PBGC’s Communications and Public Affairs
Department (CPAD) at Suite 240 at the above address or by visiting or calling CPAD during normal business hours (202–326–4040).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John
H. Hanley, Director; Gail A. Sevin, Manager; or Bernard Klein, Attorney;
Legislative & Regulatory Department,
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation,
1200 K Street, NW., Washington, DC
20005, 202–326–4224. (TTY/TDD users may call the Federal relay service tollfree at 1–800–877–8339 and ask to be connected to 202–326–4224.)
Complete Federal Register Notice with Full Details

eNews from AoA - October 2010

Table of Contents
Top Story

October Is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

 AoA News

Population Data on Older Hispanic Adults Featured in AoA’s October Widget

Other HHS News

CMS Awards Grants to Six States to Combat Abuse and Neglect in Long Term Care Facilities

Information on Peripheral Arterial Disease Added to NIHSeniorHealth Website

HHS Announces the Launch of HealthCare.gov on Facebook

HHS Releases $101 Million in Emergency Funding to States for Energy Assistance

Nationwide System to Assist Doctors and Hospitals in Switching to Electronic Health Records Is Completed

HHS Awards $68 million in Grants to Support Community Living for Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities

Federal Funding Opportunities

Rural Health Network Development Grant Program

Second Opportunity for National Background Check Program Funding

More News

NCOA to Fund Benefits Enrollment Centers

October Is Crime Prevention Month: Learn About Go Direct

October 16 Is World Food Day

USDA Awards Grants to Expand Nutrition Aid for Low-Income Seniors

UN Report on “Current Status of the Social Situation, Wellbeing, Participation in
Development and Rights of Older Persons Worldwide”

Additional National Observances in October
Submit a Story! 
Conferences
Full Newsletter

Aging's Challenges Amplified for Gays and Lesbians - NYTimes.com

Image via WikipediaBy PAULA SPAN

David and his partner, Paschal, together for more than 20 years, married during the brief period that same-sex marriages were legal in California. They’re in their 60s, in decent health and financial shape. Yet thinking about their future makes David uneasy.

With an eldercare system (if you can call it a system) that depends on younger family members shouldering responsibility for older ones, perhaps any childless and aging couple would share his concerns. But gay men and lesbians face particular challenges, as David pointed out to me in a recent e-mail.

Let him count the ways. “The guys who are 65 and older now generally came of age, and came out, when doing so meant alienation from your family,” David wrote. “Many of the older gays I know are still estranged.” They don’t feel they can rely on younger relatives for help.

David and Paschal (citing privacy concerns, they asked that their full names not be used) expect to have to care for themselves — not because they’re estranged from family members, but because their nieces and nephews live far away. So David is considering other options.

If the couple wanted to retire to Paschal’s home state in the South, where senior housing communities would be much less expensive, “we’d have a hard time finding a life care facility that would accept us as a married couple,” David wrote. “And I doubt the other residents would be too welcoming if we did get in. And church-sponsored places — often a good value for straight folks — are largely not available for open gays.”

A number of researchers have found that, for those reasons, older gay men and lesbians sometimes conceal their sexual orientation when they enter nursing homes or assisted living facilities, effectively recloseting themselves at one of life’s most vulnerable passages.


At older ages, too, a number of the federal policies that protect married couples come into force, leaving gay men and lesbians, even those who marry in their own states, at a comparative financial disadvantage. Paschal’s Social Security benefits, for instance, are considerably greater than David’s, but David won’t be eligible for the spousal and survivor benefits that other widowers receive should something happen to Paschal.
Full Article

New Fiscal Year Brings More Grief for State Budgets, Putting Economic Recovery at Risk — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Image by dj @ oxherder arts via Flickr

By Erica Williams, Phil Oliff, Ashali Singham and Nicholas Johnson

Dismal state revenue collections caused by the severe recession are setting the stage for a new round of state budget cuts as fiscal year 2011 begins in most states on July 1. The states’ cumulative budget shortfall will likely reach $140 billion in the coming year, the largest shortfall yet in a string of huge annual gaps that date back to the beginning of the recession. Closing it will have severe effects on services and jobs.

In many states, the new fiscal year will bring immediate cuts to programs and services that are facing unprecedented demand. As of July 1, 10,000 families in Arizona will lose eligibility for temporary cash assistance; Georgia will lay off as many as 284 workers who help low-income families enroll for food stamp, Medicaid and TANF benefits; and Kansas will cut off nearly 2,800 individuals with a disability from independent living services. Education, health care, and other priority areas will also face new cuts in the coming fiscal year — on top of extensive cuts that at least 45 states have enacted over the last two years.

States are raising taxes as well for 2011. Effective July 1, Kansas and New Mexico increase their sales taxes; Hawaii, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, and Utah increase their tax on tobacco products; Washington begins taxing soda, and Oklahoma is temporarily suspending various business and energy tax credits. Other changes have already taken effect or will take effect later in fiscal year 2011. Since 2008, more than 30 states have raised taxes or tax-like fees.

Separate and apart from dismal revenue collections, the budget situation for states just got worse. Last week, the U.S. Senate failed to pass jobs legislation that would have extended an enhanced federal match for the Medicaid program that 30 states were counting on to balance their budgets. Without these funds, states will make even deeper spending cuts and more tax increases than previously planned.
These state actions, while necessary to meet state balanced-budget requirements, will nevertheless slow the economic recovery and raise the risk that the nation will fall back into recession as the loss of Americans’ spending power ripples through the economy. States’ actions to close their $140 billion gap without more federal aid could cost the economy up to 900,000 public- and private-sector jobs.

Continue Reading

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fiscal 2011 could be hardest yet for states (reuters.com)
• Editorial: Bad News Back Home (nytimes.com)
• Gov. Patrick signs $27.6B 2011 Mass. state budget (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Ariz. Lawmaker: Cuts a Must Without Stimulus Cash (abcnews.go.com)

Social Security: An Appreciation - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

By PAULA SPAN

Got a good-news story about the role Social Security has played in your life, your family’s history or your community? The Frances Perkins Center, a young nonprofit organization that honors the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet (Perkins was the secretary of labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and maintains her family homestead in Newcastle, Me., wants to hear it — or see it.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Social Security Act, which Roosevelt signed into law in August 1935, the center hopes to collect 1,000 written stories (400 words or less) and short videos (three minutes or less). Most of the stories will appear on the group’s Web site, but some will be collected in a commemorative book to be published in August.

Continue Reading

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social Security Talking Points For America Speaks (seminal.firedoglake.com)
• There Is No Crisis (mydd.com)
• Robert Kuttner: The Stealth Attack on America's Best-Loved Program (huffingtonpost.com)
• Social Security Looks Good From Here at 75 (usnews.com)

TIME GOES BY | Grateful to Be Retired

by Ronni Bennet
Among the stray thoughts that roll around in my head, one repeats itself every time I see a news story about unemployment, underemployment and recession-related job advice: how grateful I am that I am no longer in the workforce.

Retiring was not on my agenda when I was forced into it five years ago, but after a year of futile searching for work, there was no longer another choice. It was painful to accept that my working years were finished but as much as I would have preferred to find a job (I really liked the kind of work I did in those days), I was relieved to leave behind the new employment rules.

Among those rules, which pertain even more so one recession and half a decade later, are these:

To sell yourself to prospective employers, you must create a “personal brand” - make yourself as individually identifiable as Coca-Cola or Apple or Tampax.

You must erase from your resume all but the last ten years of your career. Anything you learned or accomplished before then is not only irrelevant, it might – god forbid – suggest you are older than 35 which, apparently, has become the age at which workers become too old for paid employment.

If someone does offer you a position, you must be prepared to accept a salary of less than half what you were paid on your previous job for the same or similar work. Understand, too, that you are likely to be hired as an independent contractor which means zero benefits.

This stuff is what the job experts tell job seekers these days. They are also cheer leaders for self-employment. Start your own company, they say, become an entrepreneur, hire others to work for you, be the big cheese. Entrepreneurship is all the rage, we are told, taking America by storm. Even the statistics back up the claim.

According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, as reported by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in The New York Times earlier this week:

“'Rather than making history for its deep recession and record unemployment,' the foundation reported, '2009 might instead be remembered as the year business startups reached their highest level in 14 years — even exceeding the number of startups during the peak 1999-2000 technology boom.'

“According to the report,” writes Reich, “most of the growth in startups was propelled by 35- to 44-year-olds, followed by people 55 to 64. Forget Internet whiz kids in their 20’s. It’s the gray-heads who are taking the reins of the new startup economy.”

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it. Exciting, even. And all those older folks leading the way? Wow. Except almost none of those people intend to become entrepreneurs which, contrary to the hype, is almost always about treading water as an independent contractor, not a new business owner.

Because they have been unemployed for months and even years, because they have used up their 401(k)s and IRAs just to stay afloat, they have been forced into trying to work for themselves. It is the only choice left.

As Reich notes in the Times story:

“While some are happy about their new status, most are worse off than they were before. It’s one thing to be a contingent worker in good times and when you’re young; quite another in bad times when you’re middle-aged.”

No kidding. My last job was as an independent contractor. There were no paid holidays, sick leave or vacations. I was required to pay the corporate half of FICA and Medicare taxes as well as my own. I bought my health coverage at an astronomical price on the individual market and couldn't save a dime; I was making less than two-thirds of my previous salary before all the extra expenses.

When another mass layoff came around, my staff colleagues, with whom I had worked side-by-side (and in some cases supervised), collected unemployment insurance benefits until they found new jobs; I was ineligible because I was a contractor.

Even before the recession, the world of work was changing for the worse. With the dramatic unemployment statistics these past two years, people forget that for the previous decade and more, corporate America was already laying off workers in large numbers and sending jobs to low-wage countries. The recession just accelerated the practice, and none of those jobs will ever come back to the United States.

Eventually, some years down the line, we will pull out of this recession (no, I do not believe it is over, whatever government figures say), but the employment world will never again look like it did during our working years.

I don't want to “brand” myself. I know my early- and mid-career experience made my late career both possible and as successful as it was. And whatever those experts try to tell us, working for myself was a bummer. Some of us do not have the skills (or interest) to run a company, even a company of one.

But those are the requirements now and every day I am grateful that I don't need to be searching for work in this new employment world. In certain eras, I think it is a good thing to be among the elders.

VETERANS’DISABILITY BENEFITS Expanded Oversight Would Improve Training for Experienced Claims Processors

Image via Wikipedia

Why GAO Did This Study
The Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-389) mandated that GAO evaluate the Department of Veterans Affairs VA training for disability claims processors. This report answers the following two questions: (1) How appropriate is the training provided to experienced disability claims processors? (2) How adequate is the Veterans Benefits Administration’s (VBA) monitoring and assessment of this training? To address these questions, GAO conducted a web-based survey of a nationally representative sample of claims processors, interviewed VBA headquarters and regional office officials, and reviewed VBA training material, relevant federal statutes, regulations, and court cases.

What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends that VBA (1) adopt procedures for routinely monitoring and ensuring compliance with annual training requirements, including more fully using its available electronic data to ensure that training requirements are met, (2) develop clear written guidance on the types of activities all regional offices should and should not count toward completion of annual training requirements, and (3) develop and implement a written strategy for routinely assessing the appropriateness of the training regional offices provide to experienced claims processors.

In its comments, VA generally concurred with GAO’s conclusions and concurred with all of GAO’s recommendations.
Read/Download Complete Report)

USDA Announces Grants to Expand Nutrition Help for Low-Income Seniors

Image via Wikipedia

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest in pilot projects to increase access and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the Food Stamp Program, among low-income seniors. Award grants, totaling approximately $8 million, will allow State agencies to pursue innovative outreach and delivery pilot projects. Interested State agencies may obtain grant applications at http://www.grants.gov or http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is encouraging State agencies to submit grant applications for programs designed to boost SNAP participation among Medicare's Extra Help population. Extra Help, also called Low Income Subsidy, is a program to help low-income individuals or couples with limited resources pay for their Medicare prescription drug plan costs. Under a new law, data from these applications is sent to State Medicaid agencies to enroll people in Medicare Savings Programs. FNS will provide funding to encourage the Extra Help population to participate in SNAP by using State Medicaid agency data from Medicare Savings Programs. FNS invites State agencies to submit applications that will implement outreach efforts, simplify eligibility, or standardize benefits for this population.

The deadline to submit grant proposal applications is June 30, 2010.

Proposed Rulemaking: Garnishment of Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments

SUMMARY: Treasury, SSA, VA, RRB and OPM (Agencies) are publishing for comment a proposed rule to implement statutory restrictions on the garnishment of Federal benefit payments. The Agencies are taking this action in response to recent developments in technology and debt collection practices that have led to an increase in the freezing of accounts containing Federal benefit payments. The proposed rule would establish procedures that financial institutions must follow when a garnishment order is received for an account into which Federal benefit payments have been directly deposited. The proposed rule would require financial institutions that receive a garnishment order for an account to determine whether any Federal benefit payments were deposited to the account within 60 calendar days prior to receipt of the order and, if so, would require the financial institution to ensure that the account holder has access to an amount equal to the sum of such payments in the account or to the current balance of the account, whichever is lower.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 18, 2010.
More Information

Medicare Savings Programs: Analyzing Options for Expanding Eligibility

Medicare savings programs are designed to provide financial assistance to Medicare beneficiaries whose income and assets are too high to allow them to qualify for full Medicaid coverage. In examining policy changes that would expand eligibility by either relaxing resource requirements or increasing the income limit, the authors find a trade-off between making more beneficiaries eligible and targeting a smaller group of individuals with greater health care needs. Read More

Letters - What Do the Elderly Owe the Young? - NYTimes.com

Letters to the Editor in response to the David Brooks op-ed piece The Geezers’ Crusade in the New York Times.

Read Letters

TIME GOES BY | GRAY MATTERS: Pete Peterson on Threats on Social Security

Image via Wikipedia

by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Saul Friedman

Pete Peterson is still at it, and he’s still wrong. He’s the billionaire financier who, along with his Wall Street buddies watched the economy burn, let dozens of old companies go bankrupt, a couple of hundred banks close and millions of people get thrown out of work.

Yet here he is again, as I remember him more than a decade ago, crusading with his billions to cut the Social Security benefits, disability and survivor insurance payments for millions of Americans because he believes that the $120 or so a month that they get will break the United States.

But this time, alas, his hopes to slash and burn the social insurance contracts with America, are getting some sympathy in the Congress and even the White House, more on which in a moment.

Continue Reading

New Year's Resolution For Older Adults: Take Advantage Of New Changes To Programs That Help With Medicare Costs

Many 2010 New Year's resolutions will likely focus on staying healthy and saving money. Older adults can help keep both of these resolutions by using BenefitsCheckUp, a free, online benefits screening service developed and maintained by the National Council on Aging (NCOA).

Continue Reading

Alliance for Retired Americans Handout-Checklist of Elder Benefits

Image via Wikipedia

The Alliance for Retired Americans has compiled a checklist of elder benefits in the Senate healthcare reform bill.
Get it Here

H.R. 3787: To amend title 38, United States Code, to deem certain service in the reserve components as... (GovTrack.us)

Image by maphu via Flickr

To amend title 38, United States Code, to deem certain service in the reserve components as active service for purposes of laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Sponsor: Rep. Timothy Walz [D-MN1]

Cosponsors: John Adler [D-NJ3],Brian Bilbray [R-CA50], John Boozman [R-AR3], Paul Broun [R-GA10], Henry Brown [R-SC1],Gerald Connolly [D-VA11], Joe Courtney [D-CT2], Bob Filner [D-CA51], Charles Gonzalez [D-TX20], John Hall [D-NY19], Deborah Halvorson [D-IL11], Phil Hare [D-IL17], Stephanie Herseth Sandlin [D-SD], Thomas Latham [R-IA4], Eric Massa [D-NY29], Jerry McNerney [D-CA11], Michael Michaud [D-ME2], Harry Mitchell [D-AZ5], James Oberstar [D-MN8], Solomon Ortiz [D-TX27], Thomas Perriello [D-VA5], Collin Peterson [D-MN7], Earl Pomeroy [D-ND], Ciro Rodriguez [D-TX23], Phil Roe [R-TN1], Gene Taylor [D-MS4], Harry Teague [D-NM2]

Full Text

Status:
Introduced Oct 8, 2009
Referred to Committee on Veterans Affairs
Read More

Updated Information

S. 1753: A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to increase assistance for disabled veterans who... (GovTrack.us)

Image via Wikipedia

A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to increase assistance for disabled veterans who are temporarily residing in housing owned by a family member, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Sen. Bernard Sanders [I-VT]

Cosponsors:

Text

Status:
Introduced Oct 5, 2009
Referred to Committee on Veterans Affairs

More Information

Bill Updates

Can Cutting Off Wealthy Seniors Save Medicare?

S. 1685: A bill to provide an emergency benefit of $250 to seniors, veterans, and persons with... (GovTrack.us)

Image via Wikipedia

A bill to provide an emergency benefit of $250 to seniors, veterans, and persons with disabilities in 2010 to compensate for the lack of a cost-of-living adjustment for such year, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Sen. Bernard Sanders [I-VT]
Cosponsors: Christopher Dodd [D-CT], Patrick Leahy [D-VT], Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI]

Full Text

Status:
Occurred: Introduced Sep 17, 2009
Occurred: Referred to Committee on Finance

Read More

H.R. 3557: To provide an emergency cost-of-living increase for Social Security benefits for 2010 (GovTrack.us)

Image via Wikipedia

Sponsor: Rep. Walter Jones [R-NC3]
(no cosponsors)

Full Text

Status:

Occurred: Introduced Sep 14, 2009
Occurred: Referred to Committee on Ways and Means

Read More

H.R. 3572: COLA Assistance Act of 2009 (GovTrack.us)

Image via Wikipedia

To provide a cost-of-living increase for Social Security benefits for 2010 of 2.9 percent.

Sponsor: Rep. Rodney Alexander [R-LA5](no cosponsors)

Full Text

Status:

Occurred: Introduced Sep 15, 2009
Occurred: Referred to Committee on Committee on Ways and Means.

Read More