Tag: Pensions

Veterans' Benefits for Seniors Expected to Be Reduced in 2017

Veterans’ benefits are expected to be tougher to qualify for next year, according to the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension program, which subsidizes senior living and home care for veterans and their spouses.

The pension is designed to provide financial support to lower income veterans and their spouses who need help with daily living.

To qualify for the new standards, a veteran and his or her spouse must have $80,000 or less in total assets, excluding one home and vehicle.  Also, the veteran must have been discharged honorably and served 90 consecutive days, at least one of which was during an approved period of war.

The proposed changes will tighten eligibility requirements, potentially affecting veterans already eligible for the pension, including disqualifying candidates who were previously entitled to the funds.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

W.Va. Senators Applaud Committee Passage of Miner Protection Act

A federal bill to protect the pensions and health care benefits of thousands of retired miners is one step closer to becoming law. 

Both of West Virginia’s senators are urging its passage by the end of the year.

The Miners Protection Act passed out of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on an 18-8 vote Wednesday.

Sen. Joe Manchin introduced the bill last summer to help shore up what he calls a “promise made to coal miners and their families in 1946.”

The bill would take money from a federal fund to clean up abandoned mine sites and transfer it to a fund that helps pay for the pensions and health care benefits of retired miners and their families. That fund has taken a hit with the decline in the coal industry.

Without additional funding, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said 16,000 retired miners would lose their benefits by the end of the year and another 7,000 by July.

“We know this is the first step, but it’s a very significant first step to get it out of committee in a bi-partisan way,” Capito said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday. She added the bill had passed out of the committee with more votes than anticipated.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has not said whether he’ll bring the bill to a vote in the full chamber, but Capito believes it will be taken up by the end of the year.

In a written statement Wednesday, United Miner Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts said:

“It has been a long fight to gain a congressional committee’s approval of this critical legislation…Now that this important first step has been achieved, it is vital that Congress move as quickly as possible to finally pass this legislation that will mean so much to the lives of thousands of senior citizens across America. There is no more time to waste.”

Miners March in Southwestern PA to Safeguard Pensions and Benefits

Thousands of miners have rallied and marched in southwestern Pennsylvania to safeguard pensions and health benefits.

The United Mine Workers of America says it’s concerned because environmental regulations on coal-burning plants have combined with abundant supplies of natural gas to drive down demand for coal at power plants.

Earlier this week, Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources asked a bankruptcy judge to let it break a union contract so the company can reorganize its finances.

The union says Friday’s rally and march from the Greene County Airport to the Greene County Fairgrounds was a “demonstration of solidarity” as the coal industry has dealt with down-sizing and bankruptcies.

The union says although judges can void contracts in bankruptcy court, the union must still agree to work under any amended contracts.

165 W.Va. Pension Recipients Get More than $80K Annually

A review of West Virginia’s pension system has found that 165 recipients are paid more than $80,000 in annual benefits.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that 40 state pension recipients collect more than $100,000 annually. More than half of those receiving more than $80,000 have begun receiving benefits since 2009.

That includes first lady Joanne Tomblin, who retired in June after 15 years as president of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College. The newspaper says she is receiving $111,260 in annual retirement benefits, compared to her annual college salary of $166,336.

The newspaper obtained the information through an open-records request.

West Virginia as nine retirement systems serving more than 140,000 active employees and retirees. In recent years, the pension system has accounted for 10 percent of the state’s budget.

Senators: Use Mine Cleanup Funds to Pay for Miner Benefits

Members of the U.S. Senate will soon consider a bill that could affect the pension and healthcare benefits of nearly 28 thousand retired West Virginia coal miners.

Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, along with Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, introduced the Miners Protection Act Tuesday, aimed at protecting the lifetime healthcare and pension benefits promised to coal miners by the federal government.

On a conference call with reporters, Manchin said the economic state of the country over the past several years has put the pension and healthcare system at risk. Before the 2008 economic downturn, Manchin said the benefits program was funded at 94 percent compared to 71 percent today.

The bill finds a new source of funding for the benefits in the federal abandoned mine lands, or AML, program. AML funds come from a tax on each ton of coal produced in the country.

The first $490 million of that revenue are required to be used for the reclamation of abandoned mines across the country that may cause environmental harm to its surrounding area. Under the Miners Protection Act, the rest of the revenue would be dedicated to the miners’ benefits.

“It’s a way to fix something that we’re responsible and obligated [for] and we’re going to end up paying one way or another,” Manchin said. “This is a better way to handle it.”

In 2014, the AML fund had an unappropriated balance of $2.48 billion.

United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts expressed his support of the bill in a written statement.

“There are literally thousands of retirees and widows throughout America’s coal-producing regions for whom this legislation is a matter of life or death,” Roberts said. “This legislation would preserve [their] benefits, and ensure that they have the dignified retirement they deserve.”

W.Va. Pension Board OKs National Guard Service Credits

  Public employees who also serve in the West Virginia National Guard can count time spent on active duty status toward their state pensions.

They also can receive military service credit for time spent on training missions.

The Charleston Gazette reports that the state Consolidated Retirement Board approved the changes in a ruling issued Wednesday. The ruling came in an appeal by former West Virginia National Guard Adjutant General Allen Tackett regarding his service credits.

The ruling also says National Guard members qualify for a month of military service for any month in which they have 10 or more days on active duty.

Hearing officer Jack DeBolt says Tackett’s appeal is intended to set a precedent to extend benefits to other public retirees with National Guard service.

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