www.pensionrights.org The Pension Rights Center and workers and retirees across the nation are celebrating the passage of the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act, as part of the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 aid package. The Butch Lewis Act will protect the hard-earned benefits of about 1.5 million active and retired truck drivers, nurses and health care workers, plumbers and construction trade workers, bakery workers, musicians, and others. “To say that we are ecstatic is an understatement,” said Karen Friedman, the Center’s Executive Director. “We have worked with grassroots activists and allied organizations for eight long years to push for a solution to the multiemployer crisis and we are now breathing a long sigh of relief that finally, finally Congress has acted to save their promised benefits. This is a historic day.”
Multiemployer Plan Help
The new stimulus bill allows multiemployer plans that are in critical and declining status to get a lump sum of money to make benefit payments for the next 30 years, or through 2051.
Michael Clark, managing director and consulting actuary with River and Mercantile, says plans must file an application for special financial assistance. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has 120 days from the law’s passage to issue regulations or guidance about the process and specify effective dates.
The legislation says plans can use the money to make benefit payments and pay plan expenses, Clark notes. Multiemployer plans must track the money they have received and earnings on that money separately from other funds. The PBGC will issue rules about permissible investments for the special assistance funds.
Pension and Executive Compensation Provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act | Seyfarth Shaw LLP jdsupra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jdsupra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
WDIO Created: March 11, 2021 10:58 AM
For nearly 7 years, retired Teamsters in the Northland have been very worried about their pensions. The Central States Pension Fund notified them they were proposing cuts, which would have been devastating to over 22,000 retirees in Minnesota.
But after tireless work, phone calls, visits and meetings, a solution made it into the stimulus bill which was signed by President Biden on Thursday. When I saw the gavel go down, I got chills, explained Vicky Jahr, a member of the American Pension Justice group. We ve worked on this for almost 7 years. June would have been 7 years. And it s like taking one step forward, two steps back. I ve been to Washington many, many times.
How The American Rescue Plan Act Will Help More Than A Million Retirees And Workers forbes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forbes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.