Topics in the News:
benefits

In order to keep the UFT Welfare Fund’s benefits secure not only for the present time but also for the future, changes have been made to the prescription drug plan and the dental plan, reported the Fund’s Executive Director Arthur Pepper. Members were sent a letter and information outlining these changes in December.

As a result of the UFT Welfare Fund’s annual review process, it was determined that changes to the prescription drug plan and the dental plan were needed to ensure that the benefits offered to more than 300,000 in-service members and their covered dependents are protected now as well as into the future, reported the Fund’s Executive Director Arthur Pepper.

Beginning in 2011, the Affordable Care Act required Part D enrollees whose incomes exceed the same thresholds that apply to Part B enrollees to pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount, in addition to their Part D plan premium. The income related adjustment will be deducted from your Social Security check.

The Florida Education Association is suing in state court to overturn a law making government workers in the Florida Retirement System contribute 3 percent of their salaries to their pensions — the first such charge in almost four decades. The union says the law is unconstitutional and unilaterally rewrites a pension agreement in place since 1974.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew, City Comptroller John Liu, Mayor Bloomberg and other municipal union leaders announced an agreement in principle to create a new investment advisory board that will oversee the investment process for all five New York City pension funds while retaining the independent status of each fund. The plan, still in its exploratory phase, will need approval from Albany.

Do you spend a lot each month on child care? Is your out-of-pocket spending on health care adding up? You may be able to save hundreds of dollars a year in federal and Social Security taxes by enrolling in the city’s Flexible Spending Accounts program. The program allows public school educators and other municipal employees to use pre-tax earnings to cover dependent-care costs or medical expenses not covered by your health plan.

The battle for an automatic cost-of-living adjustment for retirees is long since won, but we have not retired from the field. The UFT and NYSUT continue to plug away in Albany to improve the COLA.

Another school year begins. Unfortunately this is not a year of hopeful, new beginnings. Our brothers and sisters still in the classroom have escaped threatened layoffs but face budget cuts that mean soaring class sizes, supply shortages and scores of unforeseen problems.

A recent survey by Fidelity of more than 500 corporate employees in U.S. employer-sponsored defined-benefit pension plans showed that 71 percent of these participants were not aware of how their plans worked. UFT members who take advantage of the union’s many pension services are more knowledgeable.