MMB
Senior
I guess you dont understand when the pension is frozen you dont gain anymore money from it, you are locked in at the current rates.
Almost correct.
The cash balance portion of my pension is frozen, per your description.
The defined benefits portion was supposed to be based on my final average earnings at the time of my retirement. That FAE would have been based on my highest earnings in any three year period in the last 10 years of employment.
The retirement figure is:
30% for YOS, reduced by 2% per year under 30 years
Plus
30% for age minus 3% per year under 62 years
Times FAE.
The DB is frozen in that FAE and YOS are set at what they were on December 31, 2005. The 3% FAE times age reduction is still in effect, which in my case means my retirement will still increase by 3% per year for the next 8 years.
For me (and anyone with 20 or more YOS as of 12/31/05), FAE being frozen as of 12/31/05 could prove to be a good thing. We took a 19% pay cut this year and when or if we will make that back is a big question mark. The good thing is that FAE was set before the pay cut could be a factor in the figure. I’ll take an 8% hit in YOS, but the FAE will be based on my pay at a pay scale 19% higher.
Per deltaflyboy:
> ... the pension reform that recently passed congress
> will give Delta the ability to keep ground employees
> pensions without turning them over to the PBGC.
The PBGC has much steeper age and YOS penalties and a lower pay cap, so Delta hanging on to the plan, even frozen, is a good thing too.