Retiree benefits

[LOLSON17]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington State. My Mother-in-law retired from US West Communications November of 1990. Under US West Communications if you retired prior to 12/31/1990 you would get health insurance through the company until date of death. Since then US West Communication was taken over by Q-West Communications and this last summer Q-West Communication was taken over by Century Link. In the takeover by Century Link, they changed my Mother-in-laws service time from 17 years of service to 12 years of service they also changed the year she retired from 1990 to 1992. Century Link admits all the information was hand keyed. This has caused Century Link to take away her health insurance effective 2/1/2012. When she retired, she was eligible for health insurance until the day she and her spouse pass away. The Century Link representative also told her she is lucky they do not take her pension away because with only 12 years of service, she is not eligible for a pension but they are going to let her continue to draw a pension. Since she retired she has moved twice and her paperwork has been lost Century Link is telling her the only way they will change anything is if she shows proof of retirement date and years of service. Can you tell me if she has any legal recourse?

 

[justalayman]

Can you tell me if she has any legal recourse?

yes but they all require her proving her claim.

 

[swalsh411]

Has she tried contacting either the SSA or the IRS to get copies of her W-2 wages for those years? If not it's worth a try. Could take months though.

 

[LdiJ]

Has she tried contacting either the SSA or the IRS to get copies of her W-2 wages for those years? If not it's worth a try. Could take months though.

However, she would have to get them to provide her the actual W2s. The SSA is the better source for that. They can give her a print out that shows that she stopped working in 1990, and the W2s would prove for whom she worked.

 

[commentator]

It is entirely possible that the companies, in changing hands, did some sort of hootchie cootchie with service times of employees, too. Someone at the company may have said it was "hand keyed" indicating that it was a keypunch/ paperwork error that has mysteriously changed her retirement date in THEIR favor, but it could actually have been a deliberate move to get rid of a lot of employee pensions or years of service or requirement to provide insurance. They'll just reinstate where the people really do raise a lot of sand. And if she can't prove when she actually retired, then she's pretty much out of luck, because the buy-out company certainly won't be interested in making it right for her.

I agree, her best bet would probably be to go through the Social Security system. If she really does this poor a job of keeping up with her personal records, is not really comfortable with the idea of going through all the red tape of dealing with government agencies to obtain proof, I think she might consider retaining an attorney to represent her in this negotiation with the company.