Pension plan

“ Create Automatic Workplace Pensions: The Obama-Biden retirement security plan will automatically enroll workers in a workplace pension plan. Under this plan, employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan will be required to enroll their employees in a direct-deposit IRA account that is compatible to existing direct-deposit payroll systems. Employees may opt out if they choose. Experts estimate that this program will increase the savings participation rate for low and middle-income workers from its current 15 percent level to around 80 percent. ”

“ From the larger economic as well as from the larger moral standpoint the plan of a contributory pension seems to promise least danger to society and the greatest result. I am inclined to believe from such evidence as the pension systems which now exist can furnish that a justly regulated compulsory contributory pension system, on the whole, promises most both for the individual and for the social organization. ”

“ The petitioners quote from a statement by the National Industrial Conference Board the following: 'More specifically, the efficiency of the individual workers is stimulated by the feeling of security and hopefulness that results when the individual is relieved of the fear of destitution and dependency in old age and by the sentiment of loyalty and good will fostered by the pension plan, which thus operates as a spur to the ambition of the worker and incites him to more intensive and sustained effort. ”

“ All parties apparently concede, moreover, that PERS' plan is "bona fide," in that it " 'exists and pays benefits.' " McMann, 434 U.S., at 194, 98 S.Ct., at 446; see id., at 206-207, 98 S.Ct., at 451-452 (WHITE, J., concurring in judgment) . Finally, whatever the precise meaning of the phrase "any . . . employee benefit plan such as a retirement, pension, or insurance plan," see infra, at 173-175, fn. 4, it is apparent that a disability retirement plan falls squarely within that category. ”

“ The Texas cause of action makes specific reference to, and indeed is premised on, the existence of a pension plan. In the words of the Texas court, the cause of action "allows recovery when the plaintiff proves that the principal reason for his termination was the employer's desire to avoid contributing to or paying benefits under the employee's pension fund." 779 S.W.2d, at 71. Thus, in order to prevail, a plaintiff must plead, and the court must find, that an ERISA plan exists and the employer had a pension-defeating motive in terminating the employment. ”

“ Every pension that is granted under our present plan upon any other grounds than actual service and injury or disease incurred in such service, and every instance of the many in which pensions are increased on other grounds than the merits of the claim, work an injustice to the brave and crippled, but poor and friendless, soldier, who is entirely neglected or who must be content with the smallest sum allowed under general laws. ”

“ The reforms would lower the age employees can participate in company pension plans, protect spouses from losing death benefits without their knowledge, permit a break in service of up to 5 years without loss of pension credit, coordinate State and Federal laws so divorced spouses can collect court-awarded pension benefits more easily, and require private pension plans to survivor's benefits—offer survivor's benefits, I should say, protection to workers after they're 45. ”

“ We should also protect existing pension plans. Two years ago, with bipartisan support that was almost unanimous on both sides of the aisle, we moved to protect the pensions of 8 million working people and to stabilize the pensions of 32 million more. ”

“ The PBGC administers and enforces Title IV of ERISA. Title IV includes a mandatory Government insurance program that protects the pension benefits of over 30 million private-sector American workers who participate in plans covered by the Title. [1] In enacting Title IV, Congress sought to ensure that employees and their beneficiaries would not be completely "deprived of anticipated retirement benefits by the termination of pension plans before sufficient funds have been accumulated in the plans." ”

“ The annual increase of pensions by the legislation of Congress has more than kept pace with the natural yearly losses from the rolls. The act of Congress of June 8, 1872, has added an estimated amount of $750,000 per annum to the rolls, without increasing the number of pensioners. We can not, therefore, look for any substantial decrease in the expenditures of this Department for some time to come, or so long as Congress continues to so change the rates of pension. ”

“ We were told that old age pensions would empty our workhouses and save an enormous expenditure upon Poor Law relief. Mr Charles Booth assured us that it would be possible to do away with out-relief altogether. We were told, moreover, that the grant of a pension at seventy would be a strong incentive to self-maintenance until that age was reached; and now we find our workhouses nearly as full as ever, whilst the places of those transferred from outdoor relief to the pension list are being filled by those under seventy. ”

“ The employer, the employee, or both, make a contribution each year toward the pension to fall due on the retirement of the employee,” who receives a bond each year that assures him a pension when he retires, each bond being complete in itself. This scheme costs little to administer and it meets the objection against a non-contributory system, that although pensions defer pay only the employee who survives in the same service until retirement receives the benefit promised, by the provision that this bond is given each year and becomes his property, to be realized at a fixed age in later years. ”

“ The Commissioner of Pensions believes that if the present legislation and methods are maintained and further additions to the pension laws are not made the maximum expenditure for pensions will be reached June 30, 1894, and will be at the highest point $188,000,000 per annum. ”

“ That such is the case, and moreover that it is usual to define such pensions as being given in consideration of past services, has led to the putting forward very generally the argument that pensions, whether given by a government or by private employers, are in the nature of deferred pay, and that holders of posts which carry pensions must therefore be rewarded by a remuneration less than the full market rate, by the difference of the value of the pension. ”

“ So far from the pension being an inducement to self-maintenance in earlier years, the fact that a pension is due shortly is made a reason for asking for out-relief in the interim. And so relief is made to breed relief. But a further irony of fate remains to be recorded. When the Old Age Pensions Act was passed the greatest stress was laid upon the condition that old age pensioners or the "veterans of labour" should be entirely dissociated from all contact with the Poor Law. ”

“ Government pensions for both husband and wife are paid when they have reached the age of 60 years, and when their income does not exceed $250 a year. The pension paid is $2.40 a week each, $4.80 for the old couple. Citizens who are incapacitated, and have not reached the age of 60 years, are also paid the $2.40 a week. Young persons deformed or mentally incompetent also receive the pension, or, rather, their guardians do. In cases where a man dies and leaves a widow and children without means of support the government looks after them. ”

“ In addition to all these arrangements for promoting a real community of interests between the company and its employees, there is a pension fund out of which retiring pensions, varying from one-fifth to one-fourth of the wages earned by the pensioner, are granted to employees who have served the company for a certain number of years, or who find themselves disabled from further service by age or by disease. ”

“ The fact that 102 different rates of pensions are paid can not, in my opinion, be made consistent with justice to the pensioners or to the Government; and the numerous private pension bills that are passed, predicated upon the imperfection of general laws, while they increase in many cases existing inequality and injustice, lend additional force to the recommendation for a revision of the general laws on this subject.
The laxity of ideas prevailing among a large number of our people regarding pensions is becoming every day more marked. ”

“ The addition to the expenditure in payment of pensions by reason of increase of rates, the including of so large a proportion of the pensioners among those entitled to the higher rates, and the extension of the benefits of the pension laws to so many classes of pensioners, have been so great as to warrant consideration in connection with any proposition for further increase. ”

“ The Old-Age Pensions Act, so far from being in conflict with a scheme of contributory insurance, is really its most helpful and potent ally. The fact that at seventy the State pension is assured to all those who need it, makes a tremendous difference to every form of insurance confined to the years before seventy, whether for old age or for invalidity. ”

“ As you are perhaps aware, a small percentage of our earnings is always appropriated by the State, and a proportionate pension becomes our due as soon as we wish to claim it. If we claim our pension at the age of seventy or eighty, it is relatively smaller than if we wait until our hundredth year or thereabouts. We are usually not in a hurry to place ourselves upon the pension list, for our active period of labour ceases then, and this source of income is lost. ”

“ Since the last-mentioned date, and during the last session of the Congress, 644 such acts became laws.
It seems to me that no one can examine our pension establishment and its operations without being convinced that through its instrumentality justice can be very nearly done to all who are entitled under present laws to the pension bounty of the Government.
But it is undeniable that cases exist, well entitled to relief, in which the Pension Bureau is powerless to aid. ”

“ Of the 1,981,208 individuals in the United States over 70, according to the census of 1898, a great majority would welcome a pension; and of all legislation this is most irreversible. On the contrary, old beneficiaries constantly agitate for more. State pension systems, too, do not materially reduce the cost of charitable relief, whether indoor or outdoor. Only in a last resort should the state attempt to do what can be done by private institutions or by private individual foresight and nothing should discourage voluntary thrift of any kind. ”

“ The chairman of the House Committee on Pensions calculates that the number of pensioners under this bill would be 33,105 and the increased cost $4,767,120. This is upon the theory that only those who are entirely unable to work would be its beneficiaries. Such was the principle of the Revolutionary pension law of 1818, much more clearly stated, it seems to me, than in this bill. When the law of 1818 was upon its passage in Congress, the number of pensioners to be benefited thereby was thought to be 374 ”

“ It is apparent, therefore, that if the roll of invalid pensioners continues to increase in equal proportion to the number added thereto during the last fiscal year, with a proportional advance in the average yearly pension, there will be no immediate reduction in the annual expenditure for pensions, for, as I have before stated, the gain to said roll during the last fiscal year exceeded the losses to the other rolls. ”

“ Since the first pension law was enacted, the amount of the annual allowance has been several times increased. Already the government has paid out more than forty-five million dollars in doles to the aged, and there are, I am told, about twenty thousand people now receiving these pensions. This is considerably more than one pensioner to every hundred persons in the country. ”

“ As the pension is reduced one-fifteenth for each year the annuitant lacks of 65 at the date of retirement, his separation, it is said, will impose no greater burden on the fund than if he had waited until 65; the reduction in the amount payable will discourage early retirement, and so tend to counteract the loss of skilled workers ”

“ There are far too many neighborhoods in which are found glaring cases of inequality of treatment in the matter of pensions, and they are largely due to a yielding in the Pension Bureau to importunity on the part of those, other than the pensioner, who are especially interested, or they arise from special acts passed for the benefit of individuals. ”

“ The pension granted by the government is a matter of bounty. 'No pensioner has a vested legal right to his pension. Pensions are the bounties of the government, which congress has the right to give, withhold, distribute, or recall at its discretion. ”

“ The Old Age Pension directly relieves the rates by keeping the pensioner out of the workhouse, or gives his family the opportunity of a fuller life by releasing the money hitherto required for his support. The Insurance Act should eventually abolish all that very large proportion of pauperism which is produced by casual sickness, prevent the deterioration which so often follows the temporary loss of work, and maintain the average level of industrial efficiency at a higher level than before. ”

“ With the Pension Bureau, fully equipped and regulated by the most liberal rules, in active operation, supplemented in its work by constant special legislation, it certainly is not unreasonable to suppose that in all the years that have elapsed since the close of the war a majority of the meritorious claims for pensions have been presented and determined. ”