Pension Counseling & Information Projects

The summary for the Pension Counseling & Information Projects grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Administration on Aging, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Pension Counseling & Information Projects: Executive Summary: Since 1993, the Administration on Aging (AoA) has funded the Pension Counseling and Information Program (the Program) to help individuals understand and exercise their pension rights. Originally a demonstration, pension counseling became a permanent program under Title II of the Older Americans Act (OAA) in 2000 and consists of multiple counseling projects and a single national technical assistance project. In FY 2001 and 2002, AoA shifted its funding focus from local and statewide projects to multi-state, regional projects in order to move the Program toward nationwide coverage. AoA-funded regional counseling projects currently serve 25 states. The counseling projects provide individuals who reside, have worked in, or have some other connection to the regional service area with the following services: drafting administrative pension claims and appeals, and support through administrative proceedings; identifying and pursuing pension benefits from sponsors that have discontinued their plan, changed names, merged with another company or gone out of business; answering basic questions about rights and remedies under all public and private pension systems throughout the service region; and operating a region-wide outreach program to ensure public awareness of project services, emphasizing outreach to those who need pension counseling services the most. Projects receive legal training, case consultation and operational coordination and support from the national technical project. Through this program announcement, AoA plans to award five (5) regional pension counseling grants at a federal share of approximately $157,500 per year for a project period of up to three years, contingent upon the availability of federal funds. Eligible applicants include domestic public or private and non-profit entities including state, local and Indian tribal governments, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, hospitals, and institutions of higher education, with a proven record of advising and representing individuals who have been denied employer or union-sponsored pensions or other retirement savings plan benefits, and which have the capacity to deliver services on a regional basis. I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION Program Environment Income from employer-sponsored pensions and retirement savings plans is increasingly crucial to the well-being of a majority of older Americans. At the same time, threats to our nation's retirement security are also on the rise. Changes in benefit formulas, pension plan underfunding, terminations and freezes all affect millions of workers and retirees each year. In addition to these systemic issues, an array of fact-specific difficulties also adds to our nation's growing sense of "retirement insecurity." Each year thousands are reaching retirement age only to realize that their pensions have been miscalculated, or denied altogether. Difficult questions concerning the impact of death and divorce on retirement benefits add a further level of obfuscation. In addition, thousands more -- due to their previous employer having changed its name, relocated, merged with another company or gone out of business altogether -- have completely lost track of the retirement benefits they have earned. Vulnerable older adults urgently need to have a place to turn for direct hands-on help in obtaining the retirement benefits they have earned. Obstacles inherent in the system make it difficult for individuals to find reliable assistance. Private employers sponsor more than 700,000 retirement plans in the United States, and government employers bring thousands more plans into the mix, each interacting with state and federal tax laws to add further inaccessibility. No single government agency is charged with assisting individuals who have difficulty navigating these pension systems to locate or claim their benefits. Where government assistance is available, it will generally not calculate or verify benefit amounts, interpret complex plan language, or conduct extensive investigations into individual facts and circumstances such as rebuilding work histories to prove eligibility. And finding a lawyer to help is also a daunting challenge; not only due to the highly specialized and complex nature of this area of practice, but also because those who are most dependent on the income from these plans ??" low and moderate wage earners ??" often have cases of only modest value that may not attract the interest of the private bar. The need for accessible, affordable and trustworthy pension assistance has never been greater.