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| Founded | 1976 |
|---|---|
| Focus | Pensions |
| Location | |
Area served | United States |
| Method | education, advocacy |
| Website | pensionrights.org |
The Pension Rights Center is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization established in 1976. Its stated mission is "to protect and promote the retirement security of American workers, retirees and their families."
Karen Ferguson became a consultant for the United Mine Workers of America where she learned that corporate interest groups planned to undermine the new Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. She told Ralph Nader about the issue and he gave her $10,000 to fight for the rights of pensioners. [1]
With the money from Nader, Ferguson founded the Pension Rights Center in 1976. Nader later contributed another $30,000. [1] The center is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization established to protect the pensions of retirees. [2]
The Center provides information, referrals, and legal assistance to individuals, provides legal training to attorneys, and advocates on policy issues related to retirement income from a workers' and consumers' perspective. [3] [4] [5]
Since 1993, the Center has received support from the Administration on Aging to provide technical assistance and training to six regional pension counseling projects that serve 29 states free of charge. These regional pension counseling projects assist individuals who have questions about their retirement plan. [6] [7] The Center's website includes fact sheets about retirement income issues and summaries of legislation, regulations, and court cases. [8] The Center also operates PensionHelp America, an online legal referral service. [9] [10]
The Center files comments on proposed government regulations, testifies before congressional committees, [11] and coordinates Retirement USA, an initiative to promote new ideas for a retirement system in the United States. [12] [13] [14]
The Pension Rights Center receives funding from the U.S. Administration on Aging, The Atlantic Philanthropies, Retirement Research Foundation, AARP, and individuals. [8] [15]
A pension is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments. A pension may be a "defined benefit plan", where a fixed sum is paid regularly to a person, or a "defined contribution plan", under which a fixed sum is invested that then becomes available at retirement age. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is usually paid in regular amounts for life after retirement, while the latter is typically paid as a fixed amount after involuntary termination of employment before retirement.
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.
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The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify for most of these benefits, most workers pay Social Security taxes on their earnings; the claimant's benefits are based on the wage earner's contributions. Otherwise benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are given based on need.
Welfare is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance programs which provide support only to those who have previously contributed, as opposed to social assistance programs which provide support on the basis of need alone. The International Labour Organization defines social security as covering support for those in old age, support for the maintenance of children, medical treatment, parental and sick leave, unemployment and disability benefits, and support for sufferers of occupational injury.
The Fair Deal was an ambitious set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in 1945 and in his January 1949 State of the Union address. More generally the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administration, from 1945 to 1953. It offered new proposals to continue New Deal liberalism, but with a conservative coalition controlling Congress, only a few of its major initiatives became law and then only if they had considerable GOP support. As Richard Neustadt concludes, the most important proposals were aid to education, national health insurance, the Fair Employment Practices Commission, and repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act. They were all debated at length, then voted down. Nevertheless, enough smaller and less controversial items passed that liberals could claim some success.
The Federal Insurance Contributions Act is a United States federal payroll contribution directed towards both employees and employers to fund Social Security and Medicare—federal programs that provide benefits for retirees, people with disabilities, and children of deceased workers.
This article concerns proposals to change the Social Security system in the United States. Social Security is a social insurance program officially called "Old-age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance" (OASDI), in reference to its three components. It is primarily funded through a dedicated payroll tax. During 2015, total benefits of $897 billion were paid out versus $920 billion in income, a $23 billion annual surplus. Excluding interest of $93 billion, the program had a cash deficit of $70 billion. Social Security represents approximately 40% of the income of the elderly, with 53% of married couples and 74% of unmarried persons receiving 50% or more of their income from the program. An estimated 169 million people paid into the program and 60 million received benefits in 2015, roughly 2.82 workers per beneficiary. Reform proposals continue to circulate with some urgency, due to a long-term funding challenge faced by the program as the ratio of workers to beneficiaries falls, driven by the aging of the baby-boom generation, expected continuing low birth rate, and increasing life expectancy. Program payouts began exceeding cash program revenues in 2011; this shortfall is expected to continue indefinitely under current law.
Robert ("Bob") Fellmeth, is a tenured Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, holder of the Price Chair in Public Interest Law, and executive director of the Center for Public Interest Law and the Children's Advocacy Institute.
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The pensions crisis or pensions timebomb is the predicted difficulty in paying for corporate or government employment retirement pensions in various countries, due to a difference between pension obligations and the resources set aside to fund them. The basic difficulty of the pension problem is that institutions must be sustained over far longer than the political planning horizon. Shifting demographics are causing a lower ratio of workers per retiree; contributing factors include retirees living longer, and lower birth rates. An international comparison of pension institution by countries is important to solve the pension crisis problem. There is significant debate regarding the magnitude and importance of the problem, as well as the solutions.
Bradley Belt is an American businessman. He is the CEO of Palisades Capital and the managing director of the Milken Institute. He is vice chairman of Orchard Global Asset Management.
Bet Tzedek is an American non-profit human and poverty rights organization, internationally recognized for its work in providing unique advocacy and support for people living in poverty, and for communities victimized by discrimination and civil rights abuses.
A defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum or combination thereof on retirement that is predetermined by a formula based on the employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. Traditionally, many governmental and public entities, as well as a large number of corporations, provide defined benefit plans, sometimes as a means of compensating workers in lieu of increased pay.
Bread for the City is a comprehensive front line agency serving the poor of Washington, D.C., USA. The agency began as two organizations: Zacchaeus Free Clinic, and Bread for the City, a project by a coalition of downtown DC churches created in 1974 to feed and clothe the poor. As of 2011 Bread for the City offered food, clothing, social services, legal representation and medical care without charge to eligible DC residents.
Neri Javier Colmenares is a Filipino human rights lawyer and activist. He was an associate of the Asian Law Centre at Melbourne Law School when he was completing his Ph.D. in law on "The Writ of Amparo and the International Criminal Court." He also lectured at the University of Melbourne on International Human Rights Law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
A limited form of the Social Security program began as a measure to implement "social insurance" during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when poverty rates among senior citizens exceeded 50 percent.
Eugene I. Kimmelman is an American attorney and consumer protection advocate who specializes in antitrust law. Since January 2021, Kimmelman has served as a senior advisor in the Department of Justice (DOJ). During the Obama administration, Kimmelman served within the DOJ as chief counsel of the Antitrust Division.
Theresa Amato is a US public advocate and political activist. Founder and first president of the Citizen Advocacy Center which builds democracy for the 21st century, she currently serves as executive director of Citizen Works, an organization devoted to rebalancing the power between corporations and citizens. She is also the Director of its Fair Contracts Project. Amato is a manager of Amato & Main, LLC, through which she advises nonprofits, foundations, and progressive candidates seeking office.
Karen Ruth Ferguson was an American workers' rights advocate. She was the founder and leader of the Pension Rights Center.
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