when did pensions start to be governed by retirement benefits?

[flordehinojos]

in other words, when did government vote to reduce a person's pension at 62 "because the person can collect social security retirement benefits at 62", whether the person wants to, or not.

i have a friend in that predicament...and now she is being forced to go back to work. the cut in her pension benefits together with her retirement benefits at age 62 do not add up to the income she was getting from her pension up until now and she needs to make up the difference by working to full retirement age.

[GrumpyGreg]

1. I suppose that would depend on the company. I'm retired and

my pension is not in any way related to my SS payments.

Some people my age,mostly women,have no pension at all so I'm a lucky one.

[flordehinojos]

3. that is what i thougth, that pensions are not related to SS payments.

except that i know reagan signed into law something about federal pensions and social security in which an employee who collects from federal pension funds collects very little of his social security benefits. however, this friend was not working for the federal government. she worked for an insurance company.

an insurance company--aren't they making out like bandits these days on top of everything else?

[GrumpyGreg]

7. Many public employees don't pay into SS and that's probably

also true in the Federal Government. I have many friends that were schoolteachers and they don't get SS but they get very nice pensions.

Private pensions are not related to SS so I get both.

[flordehinojos]

16. how lucky! my brother did work for the federal government ...

so ... he is not as lucky!
;(

[FloridaPat]

2. Are you sure that's a gov't thing? I can see where corps are itching

to get their paws on all that pension money, but I don't think the feds are involved yet.

I met a lady a couple years ago whose retirement was in some insurance thing. The owner of the company stole all the money and left the US. She had nothing but SS. She had to go back to work too.

[flordehinojos]

5. ah, this friend worked for an insurance company ...

maybe it has to do with that -- but wouldn't government regulate on whether they can do that, or not?

[GrumpyGreg]

8. No---a private business doesn't have to give any pension at all-

any many are dropping them and replacing them with 401K plans.

[wakeme2008]

4. My mother retired from the Army Air Force Bases Exchange 20 yrs

ago, and that what happened to her. So this is nothing new.

[flordehinojos]

6. would she have retired while reagan/bush were in office?

they signed into law something about federal employees could not collect from social security benefits--they had to collect from their pension benefits.

[papau]

9. It's NOT a "reduction clause" - it is an EXTRA benefit called a SS

supplemental.

It is given from retirement date to age 62 so as to make your total income - retirement benefit plus social security - rather level. The boost when SS kicks in was said to make you starve when you early retire followed by good times after 62.

It is Extra - few plans still have it.

The government has nothing to do with it.

Her insurance company is just extra generous for the years prior to 62.

[flordehinojos]

14. thanks for the note...it is illuminating and helps me to understand.

:) why i ever thought that the government of the greatest nation on earth protected its people better...i don't know.

GWB makes so much out of PROTECTING PEOPLE from terrorists .... nothing,however, about protecting people from illnessess, poverty, scammers, scammers, etc.

[SheilaT]

10. The government never voted

to reduce a person's pension at age 62.

Some companies tie their pension benefits to SS, others do not.

Lots of people now nearing retirement age never paid attention to pensions back when they were young, because they couldn't imagine living that long. Others have been screwed over by the switch from defined-benefits pensions to 401k's and the like.

And it's also important to understand that defined benefits pensions are a relatively recent thing and have always only affected a minority of workers.

[papau]

11. just a note - defined benefit plans date to the Roman Empire with Germany

just before 1900 starting a new push for them, and the 1940's seeing a another major push.

Until 1980 most folks were in defined benefit pension plans via their place of work.

The current switch to 401k type plans amounts to a pay cut of around 20% of annual pay for the over 45 crowd that were in defined benefit plans.

[flordehinojos]

15. thanks ... as you see, i know didly squat about defined benefit pensions

and all that. i just thought that when you bought into a pension your pension was untouchable. i guess i was wrong, or simply just heard from people who were privileged to have been born and worked for it at a time when pensions were sacred.

[jody]

12. That's something unions protected but union membership has declined. nt

[flordehinojos]

13. right, and didn't reagan go for the union's jugular when he fired the

control tower people who were striking for better salaries, healthier hours?