Looking for Money in all the Right Places
Many times at Aging Matters we get calls from people who need help finding a pension they believe they should be getting, but can’t seem to find any information for. 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, as well as some other states, 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 to answer your questions about complicated pension laws, they are trained to obtain hard-to-find retirement plan publications and forms and to help with corrections to pension miscalculations and help with claiming retirement benefits that have been previously denied.
An example of help they offer is a widow who knows that her husband worked for a company many years ago and believes that he had contributed to a pension plan. Any papers she may have had are now lost and the company has closed and she doesn’t know anyone who worked there. This could be a very daunting scenario for anyone, especially a senior who hasn’t been in the workforce for awhile. The pension counselors can assist with situations like this and they are happy to help free of charge.
Pension counseling projects like this are run by local nonprofit organizations and are 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 please call toll free: 800-443-2528 or go online to www.southcentralpension.org.
Another way to “find” money is the Missouri Property tax credit (Circuit Breaker).
The MOPTC returns a maximum of $750 for renters and $1,100 for owners who owned and occupied their home. The actual 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% disabled. Also, those who are 60 or older and receiving surviving spouse social security benefits could qualify. You must be a Missouri resident with total household income of $27,500 or less for a single renter, $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 veteran with 100% service connected disability, your VA payments are not counted as income.
Forms can be downloaded from the MO Department of Revenue website www.dor.mo.gov or by calling our office at 335-3331 or 1-800-392-8771.
