About Us
The Pension Action Center strives to improve retirees’ and workers’ standard of living in retirement through individual case advocacy; referrals to appropriate programs and professionals; and issue analysis and reform of public policy. The Center, which is part of the Gerontology Institute at UMass Boston, focuses on the experience of participants in retirement plans throughout its work. Because of its clear focus, the Center is a one-of-a-kind organization in New England that touches the lives of thousands of people.
Individual Work
The New England Pension Assistance Project, the individual case advocacy arm of the Pension Action Center and one of six pension counseling projects funded by the U. S. Administration on Aging:
- provides comprehensive assistance on private or public pension issues at no cost;
- unravels complex pension plan documents and calculates benefit amounts;
- digs in to search for lost pensions, spending the necessary time that others just cannot give;
- has recovered over $40 million in pension benefits that were earned but, for whatever reason, were not paid.
Policy Work
In addition to helping more than 5700 people, the Pension Assistance Project’s work helps to inform the Pension Action Center’s issue analysis and policy reform agenda.
Through its pension counseling experience, the Pension Action identified the issue of “lost pensions". A pension becomes lost because a company has moved, been acquired or merged. Working in collaboration with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the Pension Action Center authored a widely distributed self-help guide for individuals, “Finding a Lost Pension".
An ongoing concern of the Pension Action Center is women and retirement income. The Center successfully worked to have Massachusetts state law amended to make the choice of providing a survivor benefit the actuarial equivalent of other pension payout options state employees have. This work went a long way to insure that spouses of state employees maintain financial independence and avoid poverty.
Referral Service
The National Pension Lawyers Network (NPLN) is an important program of the Pension Action Center, because many pension plan participants often have difficulty securing legal counsel. NPLN is made up of lawyers from across the country, who will represent workers, retirees and their families in pension matters on a regular fee, reduced fee or pro bono basis.
