Reductions a result of overpayments from 2003
It wasn’t the Christmas present Kenneth Carroll Sr. had hoped for.
The 74-year-old White Marsh resident recently learned his monthly Bethlehem Steel pension will be $57.69 less than usual — until August 2018.
“I’m kind of looking for my own bailout now,” Carroll joked.
Carroll, who retired from the steel mill in 2001 after more than 44 years of service, and other Bethlehem Steel retirees are starting to feel the effects of mistaken overpayments by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
“We knew it was coming,” Carroll said. “I know how to manage myself, but if I have anything drastic happen to me or my family, that’s $6,000 that would come in handy.”
Carroll and his fellow retirees knew the reduction was coming since September 2007, when they received letters from the PBGC that their pensions would be cut because of overpayments dating back to 2003.
After Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy in 2001, thousands of retirees had their pensions folded into the government-funded PBGC. The agency paid some retirees more than was allowed to be paid under federal law. The bulk of the overpayments occurred in 2003.
Carroll was told he was overpaid from December 2002 to December 2003 by $560.34 per month, resulting in a $6,724.08 total overpayment. So Carroll, starting in January, will now repay that by $57.69 per month for more than nine years.
Another retiree, 70-year-old Essex resident LeRoy R. McClelland Sr., appealed the PBGC and won. McClelland was originally told he also owed the PBGC $6,000, but his appeal process actually resulted in his pension increasing by a couple hundred dollars, after more calculations were completed.
“A lot of people are on edge. It’s very scary for a lot of people,” said McClelland, who worked at Bethlehem Steel for 42 years and retired in 2001.
“This is all happening to seniors who depend on this money, at a time when our global economy is in trouble,” McClelland said.
The PBGC continues go over the retirees’ pensions and notify former workers when they’ll see reductions in their pensions, said PBGC spokesman Gary Pastorius.
“The process is still going on of evaluating everything and sending out the letters,” Pastorius said. “There’s something like several thousand still to do, so that could go well into 2009 before it’s all done.”
