AT&T Overpaid Some Pensioners. Now It Wants the Money Back
When James Mizelle retired in 2001, he started drawing a pension from his 27-year career with AT&T and other phone companies.
Fifteen years later, he got a letter saying his benefits were miscalculated and demanding he repay $32,116.05. Mr. Mizelle, living in Round Hill, Va., replied that he couldnt repay. Within weeks, he heard from a collection agency.
That money had been spent, says Mr. Mizelle, 70, who had incurred medical bills in a battle with prostate cancer. I could not pay it back.
The former programmer and human-resources worker is among potentially hundreds of ex-employees whom AT&T Inc. has dunned in recent years for what it calls pension overpayments. AT&T sometimes has enlisted a collection agency to recover the money, a move retiree advocates, pension lawyers and some former Treasury Department officials call unusual.
Among them are 17 retirees from whom AT&T and Fidelity Investments, the pension plans record-keeper, have demanded a combined $1 million and who have contacted lawyers working with the Pension Rights Center, a retiree-advocacy nonprofit in Washington, D.C., or related groups around the country, the center says.
An AT&T spokesman says the pension overpayments affect significantly less than 1/10th of 1% of its about 517,000 participants, with a very small percentage referred to collections. He declines to say how the company identified the errors or how much money is at stake.
A Fidelity spokesman says the firm helped zero in on errors at AT&Ts direction, including some predating Fidelitys role. AT&T and Fidelity decline to address the individual cases in this article.
Companies for years have been taking measures to recoup pension overpayments, an issue federal tax officials have tried to address going back to the 1990s with a series of refinements to rules governing when and how companies must rectify such errors.
AT&T appears to have gone a step beyond many other large companies by sticking to its demands of full repayment and hiring a collection agency in some cases, even where retirees make the case that they lack the wherewithal to repay.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-overpaid-some-pensioners-now-it-wants-the-money-back-1533306044?mod=hp_lead_pos5
cpamomfromtexas
(1,245 posts)To also overpay their taxes most of which now cannot be corrected.
SWBTATTReg
(22,133 posts)calculations...they offered one time lump sum payments too.
cpamomfromtexas
(1,245 posts)LiberalFighter
(50,950 posts)asiliveandbreathe
(8,203 posts)An AT&T spokesman says the pension overpayments affect significantly less than 1/10th of 1% of its about 517,000 participants, with a very small percentage referred to collections. He declines to say how the company identified the errors or how much money is at stake.
I took a lump sum cash balance on the way out the door...as well as my ESOP....made a good decision for a change -
AT&T today was purchased by SBC years ago....their mission and values were NEVER what AT&T was...This is a sad day for a company I spent 30 years working for....
SWBTATTReg
(22,133 posts)SBC brought everyone up)...I still don't trust them...
so 1% of 517000 is 5170, 1/10 of 1% of this is 517 people...this is quite a few folks if I'm calculating this...how in the world w/ all of the cross checking and so forth when money is involved do you mess up w/ something like this?
asiliveandbreathe
(8,203 posts)a good decision..as management '78 - I was involved in the PhoneCenter wing - '83 Bifurcation..then to AT&T in '84...SE District Mass...it was a wonderful career...moved to AZ in '94..due to closing of Providence CSC...retired'98....
I'm wondering if they contracted with a co. that did the calcs? - We had so many checks and balances in place..just not sure when the errors took place...if they come lookin' for reimbursement from cash balance, oh well..catch me if you can....be well fellow co-worker..I consider my co-workers family...
SWBTATTReg
(22,133 posts)More than likely they contracted it out (the calculations)...SBC was bringing in house so much crap from ATT and others that I sometimes wondered if they knew what they were doing...since so much was going on w/ SBC and its' acquisitions...
A mistake of this magnitude means that contractors didn't mess up but that SBC did (messed up), otherwise SBC would have gone to the contractors and had them pay up differences...
Take care!