RETIREMENT KIDNAPPED

1. RETIREMENT KIDNAPPED

2. Patricia Kubistal And Nancietta Stocking Kappa Chapter Lambda State Chicago, Illinois

3. Carlene Lutz Substituting for Nancietta

4. OUR NEIGHBORS WERE ROBBED OF THEIR RETIREMENT!

5. NO POLICE REPORT • No one stole their identity • No one broke into their home • No one held them up • No Ponzi Scheme

6. VICTIMS OF THE WAR ON SAVERS! • They had a plan • Worked Hard • Saved their money • Paid off their house • Invested in secure bank CD’s

7. FEDERAL RESERVE • IN 2007 interest rates were above 4% • By 2012 interest rates were zero • Never have interest rates been this low for so long!

8. THEIR EARNINGS CAN NOT KEEP PACE WITH THE COST OF LIVING WHICH IS ABOUT 4% THIS POLICY IS A DRIVE-BY SHOOTING OF SENIORS

11. SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK • The COLA was withheld • The COLA rate was reduced • The Medicare rates increased • Medicare rates were based on income

13. FINANCIAL ACCOUTING STARDARDS BOARD • Standard FAS 87 was intended to increase transparency, but instead employers reduced their liability

14. HOW THIS WORKS • An employee earns $1,000 but agrees not to be paid until the next year and the company records deferred compensation or a debt. • The next year the employer cuts the salary to $600. The employer saves $400 and reduces his debt by $400 which under the accounting rule is recorded as a gain.

15. AND THE BEAT GOES ON • But it can slow the growth of the pension • Freeze the plan • Lay off workers • The company cannot take away money retirees have received

16. THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ACCOUTNANT • Is seen as a dollar that could potentially be added to a company’s income. The money owed 3 generations of employees becomes earnings enhancements! • Every dollar promised a retiree for • Pensions • Prescription drugs • Dental coverage • Life insurance • Death benefits

18. ANOTHER VIEW

19. WAYS WE ADJUST PENSIONS We are restructuring our pension plan. They move into “account style” or “cash balance” plans • Younger employees with limited tenure will benefit while older employees can lose as much as 20% to 50% based on new formula calculations Employers says What They Mean

20. HIGHER PENSION COSTS • What they did not say was that the higher costs stemmed not from the regular pension plan but supplemental pension plans given only to top executives • Balance sheets sometimes indicated that higher pension costs account for recent company losses

21. LUMP-SUM PENSION PAYOUTS • However, they may be worth significantly less than the value of the monthly pension check that they replace because of the way the formula is calculated • Lump sum payouts are offered as though they are a special perk.

22. PENSION IS UNDERFUNDED • While some of these statements bear truth, they do not state what often are the most significant reasons for the underfunding • Underfunding is blamed on: • Stock market losses • Lower interest rates • Life spans increasing • Rising medical costs • COLA factors

23. TRUTH BE TOLD • Employers have used pension assets to fund buyouts • Employers have used pension assets to pay termination benefits when cutting the workforce. • Employers have siphoned billions of dollars out of the plans • Employers have failed to fully fund plans as required

24. EXECUTIVE PARACHUTES • Employers have used employee pension funds for golden parachutes for top executives

25. GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES • Have adopted the ways of industry • Some officials including educators have pensions of over $320,000 as their golden parachute

26. SCHOOL DISTRICTS/STATES • School Districts and States that are required to make payments into funds are making reduced payments or no payments at all.

27. WHAT THEY DO SAY • They publish the salaries of the highest paid pensioners who do not reflect the average pensioner • They claim that when they meet operating costs that there is no money to make payments • After years of non-payments, the payment is beyond their means

29. LAW VS. PENSIONER • Pension law does not allow retirees and employees to sue for punitive damages or compensation for pain and suffering when retiree’s benefits are illegally denied to them

30. LAWSUITS • Pension lawsuits tend to be so lengthy and expensive • Retirees can sue only to reclaim the improperly eliminated benefits.

31. SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS • In 15 states, individuals may receive only 40% of their entitled social security benefits. • The Windfall law denies full social security benefits to those individuals who have earned benefits but receive a public pension

32. TRANSFER PENSION PLAN • So they cut their benefits • Or they look for overpayments under their plan and demand repayment of prior overpayments • Companies are bought out; they merge and pension obligations follow. • The new company feels no loyalty to retirees who never worked for them

33. HEALTH INSURANCE • Promised health insurance benefits from age 55 to 65 or supplemental for age 65 and above disappears or is greatly reduced

34. HOW CAN THEY DO THIS? • Or state or municipal bodies enact legislation which takes away health benefits or greatly reduces them. • They bury “reservation of rights” clauses deep in the legalese of benefit plain documents.

35. COMMONLY PROPOSED CHANGES • Governmental agencies defer making their contributions and they never make the payment. • 10 year freeze on COLA • Five year increase in retirement age • A two-tiered pension system • Increase employee contributions

36. DEFEAT AMENDMENT # 49 • In Illinois we barely defeat Amendment #49 on the blue ballot. It changes our fundamental rights to a pension as we have it today. Be vigilant

37. NATURE OF PENSION FUNDS • Funds are like pyramids in that the top—retirees—are supported by the contributing workers and employers.

38. BEING PINCHED • 32% of 18 – 29 year olds are either unemployed or working part-time while searching for full time employment

40. FALLING BEHIND • An American male with only a high school diploma earns less than his counterpart of 35 years ago. • Student loan debt outweighs credit card debt!

41. RETIREES SUPPORTERS • A family headed by people 35 – 44 will be 70% poorer than their counterpart in 1984 • The birth rate has declined by 185,000 in 2009 over 2007

42. GRIM FUTURE says Employee Benefit Research Institute • 60% of workers have less that $25,00o in total savings and investments excluding home and defined benefits • 30% have less than $1,000

44. UNIONS AND BENEFITS • The Unions after WWII began to negotiate benefits including pension plans • Governmental workers had pension plans

45. WHAT GROUP OF INDIVIDALS HAS THE LARGEST UNION?

46. TEACHERS!WITH MEMBERSHIP IN NEA AND AFT!

47. TODAY WE ARE ATTACKED! • On teachers’ collective bargaining rights • On teachers’ performances in the school • From a once revered position to the scape goat for the problems in education

48. WHAT’s OUR PLAN? • We become vigilant to all proposed changes to our pension plans • We contact our representatives and express our concerns

49. WORK TO DEFEAT PENSION CHANGES • Call, email, snail mail all family members, friends and neighbors to contact legislators about pension issues • Speak at gatherings

50. NEED A PLAN