Age Spots: Looking for Money in all the Right Places

Many times at Aging Matters we get calls from people who need help locating information about a pension they believe they should be receiving. The South Central Pension Rights Project (SCPRP) is an organization that can help. The SCPRP provides assistance to anyone with a pension question or problem � regardless of age, income or value of the claim.

The Pension Rights Project serves people in Missouri, free of charge. Pension help is hard to find because the plans and laws are complex and difficult to navigate without knowledgeable assistance. The people who work for the South Central Pension Rights Project are trained in how to obtain hard-to-find retirement plan publications and forms, as well as answer questions about pension laws. They also help with corrections to pension miscalculations and with claiming retirement benefits previously denied.

An example of help they offer: A widow knows her husband worked for a company many years ago and believes he contributed to a pension plan, but any papers she may have had are lost, the company has closed and she doesn�t know anyone who worked there.

This could be a daunting scenario for anyone, especially a senior who hasn�t been in the workforce for a while. The pension counselors can assist with these situations.

Pension-counseling projects like this are run by local not-for-profit organizations and funded under the Older Americans Act through a grant program of the U.S. Administration on Aging. Legal training and support are provided by the National Pension Assistance Resource Center, an initiative of the Pension Rights Center in Washington, D.C.

If you need help finding a pension, call toll free: 800-443-2528, or go online to www.southcentralpension.org.

Another way to �find� money is the Missouri Property Tax Credit or Rent Rebates (Circuit Breaker). The MO-PTC returns a maximum of $750 for renters and $1,100 for owners who owned and occupied their home. The credit is based on the amount of real-estate taxes or rent paid and total household income.

To qualify for the Circuit Breaker, you or your spouse must be 65 as of December 31, 2017, or 100 percent disabled. Those 60 or older and receiving surviving spouse social-security benefits also qualify. You must be a Missouri resident with total household income of $27,500 or less for a single renter, or $29,500 or less for a married couple who rents. If you own your home, your income must be below $30,000 if single and $34,000 for a married couple. If you are a veteran with 100 percent service-connected disability, your VA payments are not counted as income.

Forms can be downloaded from the Missouri Department of Revenue website www.dor.mo.gov, or by calling our office at 335-3331 or 1-800-392-8771.