Retired New York Teamsters to Get Few More Months Before Benefits Decline
Retired truck drivers will have at least a few more months before any pension cut lowers their monthly benefits after administrators of the New York State Teamsters Conference Pension and Retirement Fund temporarily withdrew their application to the Department of the Treasury.
Administrators wrote in an update to members that the Treasury Department objected to two actuarial issues with the pension restructuring plan concerning mortality tables and the assumptions of how much in annual returns the investments will make over time.
Trustees filed under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act to get approval from the Treasury Department to reduce benefits 31% for retirees and 20% for active workers to stave off insolvency in 2027. An updated plan is expected to be refiled within a few weeks, according to the update.
However, the delay means that benefit cuts will not take effect until Sept. 1 at the earliest, as opposed to June or July.
The Iron Workers Local 17 took a similar course of action, withdrawing its application based on input from the Treasury Department and then resubmitting it and receiving federal approval. Some retirees in the Iron Workers Local 17 pension have seen benefits cut up to 60%.
The New York State Teamsters Conference Pension and Retirement Fund has 34,629 active workers and retirees. Financial documents in the application state that while the pension received $116 million in contributions and withdrawal payments in 2015, it paid out $286 million in benefits to retirees and only earned $50 million in profits from investment to close the gap. UPS Inc. and YRC Worldwide are the two biggest contributors to the troubled pension.
