DEAR SUN SPOTS: I am writing to share important information that people may not be aware of — that they may have money sitting in a pension fund.

My husband had to apply for his Social Security recently because of unemployment and they informed him of pension money he had coming to him from a company he was employed with in 1992. It turns out he will be getting a monthly pension for life.

I went on the Internet to research other companies he worked at in previous years, and at Bates Mill came across six names and addresses of people who worked there back in 1972 and may have money coming to them. I’m not sure how to make them aware of his possibility.

The website I found this information on is pbgc.gov. There we’re also some other Maine companies that had peoples’ names after the company. — Shirley, sajgirl51@yahoo.com

ANSWER: Sun Spots went to www.pbgc.gov, the site for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a U.S. government agency, and there is indeed a search engine for those who may have pensions coming to them. You can search by last name of the person, name of the company or state.

A July 2010 press release on the site says that the PBGC is holding almost $197 million in unclaimed pension benefits for more than 36,000 people owed money from terminated defined benefit pension plans formerly sponsored by private sector employers.

The agency is not intentionally withholding funds, rather the site says the agency has been unable to contact these persons directly to inform them of pensions due. Unclaimed pensions (or even bank accounts) are not uncommon. Many people move without notifying former employers of their new addresses, and over the years, or even decades, people forget they may have a pension coming.

The following information about the PBGC appears on the website:

“The PBGC protects the retirement incomes of more than 44 million American workers in more than 27,500 private-sector defined benefit pension plans. A defined benefit plan provides a specified monthly benefit at retirement, often based on a combination of salary and years of service. PBGC was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to encourage the continuation and maintenance of private-sector defined benefit pension plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits, and keep pension insurance premiums at a minimum. Defined benefit pension plans promise to pay a specified monthly benefit at retirement, commonly based on salary and years on the job.

“PBGC is not funded by general tax revenues. PBGC collects insurance premiums from employers that sponsor insured pension plans, earns money from investments and receives funds from pension plans it takes over.

“PBGC pays for monthly retirement benefits, up to a guaranteed maximum, for nearly 801,000 retirees in 4,200 single-employer and multiemployer pension plans that cannot pay promised benefits. Including those who have not yet retired and participants in multiemployer plans receiving financial assistance, PBGC is responsible for the current and future pensions of about 1.5 million people.”

If you’re not online and want to find out if you have a pension due you, you can call PBGC at 800-400-7242 or 202-326-4000, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday except federal holidays.

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