|
AoA NEWS
U.S. Administration on Aging
Department of Health and Human Services
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: AoA Press Office
(202) 357-3507
Thursday, July 08, 2010
AoA Awards $1.6 million to help Older Americans Understand and Exercise their Pension Rights
Pension counseling grants
promote protection of the rights, financial security, and independence of older
individuals
HHS Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee has announced more than $1.6 million in grants to help older Americans
understand and exercise their pension rights.
Awards of $200,000 each have been made
to six regional pension counseling projects, covering 27 states, with proposed expansion
to include two more states (Indiana and New Mexico) over the three-year grant period. In addition, a National Pension Assistance
Resource Center (Resource Center) which will provide critical training and technical support to the projects, as well as to state and area agencies on aging, Aging and
Disability Resource Centers, and legal services providers, has been awarded $421,253.
“We know that many seniors across the country are concerned about their pensions and their retirement savings,” said Assistant
Secretary Greenlee. “These pension
counseling projects will increase the number of older Americans educated about pension
and other retirement benefits, with particular emphasis upon underserved and hard-to-reach
seniors, including those with limited English proficiency.
By promoting the financial security of older persons, we empower them to
make better choices in planning for their future needs including long term care.”
Services provided by the Administration on Aging’s (AoA) pension counseling projects include direct legal assistance to
individuals pursing pension claims; locating pension plans that have been lost as
a result of mergers, acquisitions, and terminations; answering questions about complex
provisions of pension plans; and making targeted referrals to other professionals
for assistance. The Resource Center
will assist individuals living in areas not currently served by an AoA pension counseling
project by expanding and maintaining a nationwide dataset of pension information
and assistance resources, as well as a web-based pension assistance and referral
system.
The AoA first funded pension counseling
and information projects in 1993 and the projects became a permanent program under
the Older Americans Act in 2000. Since
their establishment, the projects have directly served more than 35,000 individuals,
resulting in nearly $100 million in retirement benefits recovered for individual
claimants.
The following organizations have been
awarded pension counseling grants:
|
Organization
|
Project Title
|
States Served
|
|
Elder Law of Michigan,
Inc.
|
Mid-America Pension
Rights Project
|
Michigan , Ohio , Pennsylvania
, Kentucky , Tennessee (with expansion into Indiana)
|
|
Legal Services of Northern
California
|
Western States Pension
Assistance Project
|
California, Nevada,
Arizona, Hawaii
|
|
Metropolitan Area Agency
on Aging, Inc. (MN)
|
Upper Midwest Pension
Rights Project
|
Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota
|
|
South Brooklyn Legal
Services (NY)
|
Mid-Atlantic Pension
Counseling Project
|
New York, New Jersey
|
|
Texas Legal Services
Center, Inc.
|
South Central Pension
Rights Project
|
Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana,
Missouri, Oklahoma (with expansion into New Mexico)
|
|
University of Massachusetts
Boston
|
New England Pension
Assistance Project
|
Connecticut , Massachusetts
, Maine , New Hampshire , Rhode Island , Vermont
|
|
Pension Rights Center (DC)
|
National Pension Assistance Resource Center
|
Nationwide
|
More information about AoA services and programs may be found at
www.aoa.gov.
For more information on AoA’s Pension Counseling & Information Program, please visit:
http://aoa.gov/AoAroot/AoA_Programs/Elder_Rights/Pension_Counseling/index.aspx
| Last Modified: 7/8/2010 3:35:35 PM |
|