Home Retirement Settlement Fund cuts pension benefits of over 200 retirees | Local News

Settlement Fund cuts pension benefits of over 200 retirees | Local News

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Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero, center, gestures as she speaks to retirees while Speaker Edmund Villagomez, 3rd right, listens in the Senate president’s conference room on Thursday.




OVER 200 retirees have received letters from the NMI Settlement Fund, informing them of an “adjustment” to their pension “to reflect the correct amount” after it was determined that the overtime work they performed during their active employment may not be used to calculate their benefits.

Some of the affected retirees reached out to Senate President Edith Deleon Guerero and Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez on Thursday, asking for guidance and assistance in finding a possible solution to their problem.

The retirees included Pete Pangelinan, Eusebio Borja, Rudy Sablan, Ursula Galvan, former Rep. Mario Taitano and two others who did not want their names mentioned.

Galvan, who retired in July 1999, said his monthly pension was reduced by $111 while Borja said $600 was deducted from his.

They said they were informed about the adjustment of their benefits on Nov. 6, 2023.

In separate letters, Settlement Fund Administrator Lilian M. Pangelinan informed the affected retirees that beginning with the pay period ending Nov. 15, 2023, “the Settlement Fund will adjust your benefits to reflect the correct amount, as detailed in the highlighted columns in the table below.”

The table indicated the change in the retiree’s benefit from the current amount to the “correct benefit.”

Lilian M. Pangelinan cited the adverse decision letter that the former NMI Retirement Fund issued on May 7, 2012, notifying each retiree of the overpayment of benefit they had received over the years.

For those who did not appeal the decision, the administrator said, “the findings in the letter are final and binding.”

The adverse decision letter issued 12 years ago by then-Retirement Fund Administrator Richard Villagomez told each of the affected retirees that an internal audit revealed they were “inappropriately given service credit instead of vesting credit on your accumulated OT/CT hours, in violation of 1 CMC Section 8333,” referring to Public Law 8-24 as amended by P.L. 13-60.

P.L. 8-24 included overtime pay in the calculation of a retiree’s benefit while P.L. 13-60 repealed the OT pay provision.

The retirees are seeking help to protect their benefits, Taitano said. Although he is not affected by the pension cut, he is helping his fellow retirees “fight for their pension.”

For her part, the Senate president said she would communicate with an attorney in finding ways to help the retirees.

“I’m just so saddened that this has come to light now,” she said.

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