| By Bob Weaver
Looking forward to those retirement years, receiving your retirement check to live a comfortable life?
Maybe you should be skeptical.
Pension funds and the promise of those retirement benefits may be at risk, even when they are "guaranteed" benefits.
I should know. It happened to me.
Millions of Americans may be malingering in a belief system that pension funds are protected by the federal government, or simply trusting the company that promised them.
The US government has yet to place the problem on the front burner, but they are gyrating a little about it.
Lax reporting rules created by Congress, coupled with corporate America's greediness to take advantage of billions of dollars resting in retirements accounts, have left millions of workers and retirees pension plans underfunded, in some cases depleted.
United Airlines is setting an unsavory example.
After declaring bankruptcy in 2002, the airline won court approval last month to shed $9 billion in pension obligations â shifting responsibility to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, adding to a $23.3 billion dollar deficit they already have, creating a need for American taxpayers to do another industry bail-out.
There are dozens of hideous examples of corporations raiding their own money pots and draining the taxpayer's pocketbooks at the same time.
"Unfortunately, when it comes to pension funding, too many companies do what is legally permissible â rather than what is right â when deciding how much money to put into their pension plans," said David Walker, head of the non-partisan Government Accountability Office.
The companies mask underfunding, but also at issue is their ability to tap retirement accounts for investments or other uses, obviously legal.
Corporations tempted by the billions in pension accounts, simply could not leave their mitts off the funds, "borrowing" the money to shore up their company, expand or invest in other businesses. Often those businesses failed, leaving the retirement accounts vacant.
While living in the northern panhandle of WV, dozens of businesses raided their retirement accounts, much to the dismay of workers who found themselves with a highly reduced retirement check, in some cases, none at all.
Several panhandle steel companies tapped their retirement fund, leaving longtime workers with nothing.
A large mental health center failed to tell their employees they had not been paying their portion of the company's retirement plan. Well over a year later, the employees found out the program was in default.
Now, the State of West Virginia is in deep trouble with their retirement programs for employees and teachers, thus the bail-out measure to borrow money to make it solvent.
The measure comes to a vote on June 25.
Gov. Joe Manchin says it is no more than a debt consolidation measure, and will not cost taxpayers any money.
About 34 million people â roughly 20 percent of the nation's work force â expect to receive payments from their employers through defined benefit plans.
The risk those workers face was highlighted by the United Airlines ruling, in which the government assumed responsibility for paying pensions to 120,000 current and former airline employees.
The airline employees, with taxpayer help, will receive only a portion of their retirement benefits.
A government report just released showed that pension rules allowed United to underfund its plan without notifying its employees.
Not only are American workers suffering a loss, so are American taxpayers.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp www.pbgc.gov
Senate Finance Committee finance.senate.gov
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