Administration on Aging Funds Projects to Help Older Adults
Protect Pension Rights

The Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration on Aging (AoA) awarded $787,500 in grants under the Pension Counseling and Information Program. The projects funded under this program are designed to educate and promote pension and retirement savings plan counseling and assistance among older Americans. Awards of $157,500 each have been made to five regional pension counseling projects, covering 22 states.

We are proud that our pension counseling projects are continuing to help older individuals become better educated about their pension rights and to remain independent in their own homes and communities,” HHS Assistant Secretary for Aging Josefina G. Carbonell said. “By promoting the financial security of older people, we empower them to make better choices in planning for their own long-term care.”

The AoA first funded pension counseling and information projects in 1993. The success of those original projects resulted in Congress establishing pension counseling as a permanent program under the Older Americans Act in 2000. The projects have directly helped more than 30,000 older individuals, resulting in an estimated $70 million recovered for individual claimants.

Services provided by AoA pension counseling projects include providing direct legal assistance to individuals pursuing pension claims; locating pension plans that have been lost as a result of mergers, acquisitions and terminations; and answering questions about complex provisions of pension plans.

The following organizations have been awarded pension counseling grants:

Organization	Project Title	States Served
Elder Law of Michigan Inc.	Mid-America Pension Rights Project	Michigan , Ohio , Pennsylvania , Kentucky , Tennessee
Legal Services for the Elderly ( New York )	Mid-Atlantic Pension Counseling Project	New York , New Jersey
Legal Services of Northern California	Pension Counseling and Information Project	California , Nevada , Arizona , Hawaii
Minnesota Senior Federation	Upper Midwest Pension Rights Project	Minnesota , Wisconsin , Iowa , North Dakota , South Dakota
University of Massachusetts Boston	New England Pension Assistance Project:	Connecticut , Massachusetts , Maine , New Hampshire , Rhode Island , Vermont

For more information about the Pension Counseling and Information Program, visit AoA's Web site at: http://www.aoa.gov/prof/aoaprog/pensioncounseling/pencounseling.asp

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging (AoA), works with a nationwide network of organizations and service providers to develop a comprehensive and cost-effective system of long-term care that helps elderly individuals maintain their independence and dignity in their homes and communities. For more information about the AoA, please contact: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging, Washington, D.C. 20201, Phone (202) 401-4541.