House Republicans tackle portable pensions in bill [legalize cash balance]

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=8921797

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Two key House Republicans have agreed on language that they hope will clarify the status of cash balance plans, and it will be part of a pension reform bill scheduled to be voted on Wednesday by the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the Republican aide, who works for that committee but asked not to be named.

The bill is sponsored by Education and Workforce Chairman Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, and Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas of California, and they worked out the cash balance language together, the aide said.

The language will say that a cash balance plan would meet all age discrimination tests if an older participant's benefits are equal to or greater than that of any similarly situated, younger individual in the plan.

A new cash balance pension plan that embraces this standard would not be considered discriminatory. The aide did not want to comment on IBM's case, which is still on appeal, but said a company that already is facing a legal challenge could amend its plan to meet this new standard and thus cap any possible damages, were a court ruling to go against it.

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edited Subject to match title of the article

personal retirement gets another boost! So we've all been lied to all of our lives! Great work GOP!

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whenever a republican says the word "reform", they really mean repeal or at least eviscerate. You can be sure in this case that "reform" is code for "fuck the working class in yet another creative way."

what this means...

I am not an attorney, but have followed this issue for quite a while.

The IBM employees sued IBM in federal court over IBM's conversion to a cash balance pension plan. The claim was that the cash balance plan violated age discrimination rules. The IBM employees won their court case.

It now looks like Congress is trying to overturn that decision. I don't know what impact this bill would have on existing lawsuits, but I don't think the IBM case could be used as precedent.

Again, I am not an attorney. But imo, if this bill goes through, it will give corporations the green light to convert their pension plans to cash balance pension plans (and in the process, hose their employees.)

If you know anyone who is covered by a corporate pension plan, THEY NEED TO CONTACT THEIR REPRESENTATIVES ASAP!