General pension and retirement questions and answers
When your employer closes, your pension does not vanish. What happens next depends entirely on whether you had a defined-benefit plan (traditional monthly pension) or a defined-contribution plan (401(k), profit-sharing, ESOP). If it was a defined-benefit plan, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) — a federal agency — likely becomes your new plan trustee. If…
The CSO EE Contribution line on your payslip is the mandatory employee deduction for a defined‑benefit pension plan—typically a Civil Service or public‑sector retirement system. “EE” means employee; “CSO” is the plan code used by state or local government employers (e.g., CalPERS, NYSLRS, FERS). The amount is a fixed percentage of your pensionable gross pay,…
The Caterpillar Pension Plan is a defined benefit (DB) retirement plan that pays eligible employees a monthly income based on a formula using years of service and average earnings. The plan was frozen to new benefit accruals for most non-union salaried employees after December 31, 2013, but benefits already earned remain protected. Your next useful…
If you receive a UK State Pension and need to view or download your annual P60, you can access it online through your Personal Tax Account on Gov.uk. You will need a Government Gateway user ID or a GOV.UK One Login to sign in. The P60 shows your total State Pension paid in the tax…
If you worked in the United Kingdom before 2016, you may have built up benefits under the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS). The only official way to check your SERPS entitlement is through the UK government’s Check your State Pension forecast service at gov.uk/check-state-pension. The tool is free and accessible from the United States, but…
There is no single federal “pension credit savings limit” in the US retirement system. Your savings affect different programs in different ways. The two numbers you need to know: the Saver’s Credit income limit ($76,500 for married filing jointly in 2025) and the IRS compensation cap for pensionable earnings ($345,000 in 2025). The decision criterion…
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and its US equivalents—state-paid family and medical leave from programs like California Paid Family Leave (PFL), New York PFL, Massachusetts PFML, and others—are generally not pensionable under most defined benefit and defined contribution plans. The rule: if your plan defines pensionable earnings as compensation for services actually performed, these statutory payments—replacement…
Payment in lieu of notice (PILON) is generally not pensionable under most IRS-qualified defined-benefit pension plans. The lump sum you receive instead of working your notice period typically won’t count toward your final-average-salary calculation or your years of pensionable service. But the real answer depends on how your specific plan defines “compensation.” The key decision…
Your FBI pension is administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) for agents hired after 1983, or the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) for those hired before 1984. The most actionable first step: call OPM at 1-888-767-6738 to request a personalized benefit estimate, or log into your…
No, you do not need a TV licence in the United States. The US has no television licensing system. You can watch broadcast TV, cable, satellite, or streaming services without any government‑issued TV licence, regardless of your age. If you are 80 years old and live in the US, the answer is clear: ignore any…
If you work for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), your retirement benefits are part of the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) — not a standalone TSA-branded plan. FERS gives you three components: a defined-benefit pension (the FERS annuity), Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Your pension is calculated at 1% or 1.1% of…
Yes, Delaware taxes pension income as ordinary income under the state’s graduated income tax, with rates from 0% to 6.6% for the 2023 tax year. However, eligible taxpayers can deduct up to $12,500 of pension income per year, which means many retirees pay little or no Delaware state tax on their retirement income. But here’s…
