President’s Forum 150 – The week of March 18-22 was a very good week for the NRLN – A Winner!

NRLN President’s Forum
By Bill Kadereit

The week of March 18-22 was a very good week for the NRLN – a winner.

Sometimes our wins are small and they don’t always affect “me” but in our NRLN world, we appreciate every one of them. While this year Social Security and Medicare are at risk and while we have a battle to win protecting annuitized pensions with our de-risking reinsurance proposal, we should also celebrate small steps forward. 

• A week ago, we emailed Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley that we had success in getting our proposal into law to modify the pension recoupment rules to protect plan participants.
• Pension plan sponsors had been able to recoup pension dollars from retirees, sometimes 15–20 years after retirement, many times in $10,000 chunks and in one payment. 

We pointed out to the Commissioner that Congress amended the Secure 2.0 Act at the end of 2022 to incorporate many of our recommendations including: limiting the lookback period to three years, restricting the amount that can be recouped from monthly checks to 10% and extending the payback period instead of demanding it all in short periods of time. 

On March 20, CBS News published an article noting that the Social Security Commissioner ordered the payback period be extended and that monthly deductions be capped at 10%. Kudos to the Commissioner, confirmed in December, for his quick reaction to address the problem. 

Thanks to Jay Kuhnie and his voluntary NRLN Income Security Team for the job they have done in recommending the NRLN’s proposal to limit Social Security overpayment claw back.

Please continue to support the NRLN by responding to Action Alerts when we ask, and remember we are financed only by members contributions from you. The NRLN is yours to keep!