Letter: Candidates should focus on retirement
When you apply for a widow's benefit after reaching your full retirement age, you're entitled to receive 100 percent of the amount your late spouse was collecting. Credit: iStock
After watching all the recent political debates, I don’t find one presidential candidate standing up for seniors and retirees on issues of economic security in retirement [“Debate of many clashes,” News, Dec. 16].
Corporate America and its overpaid chief executives actually seem to believe that the companies they lead have no responsibility to the loyal retirees who earned their benefits while building these organizations.
This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. I am a senior citizen and a management retiree of Verizon Communications Inc.
The executives of Verizon sold my pension plan, along with those of 41,000 other management retirees, to an insurance company. We now receive what we believe to be a less secure, less protective pension annuity.
Those 65 and older are a powerful voting group. For politicians to ignore our needs is a mistake. More information is available at the nonprofit ProtectSeniors.org.
Robert A. Rehm, Jericho
Editor’s note: The writer is the co-founder of the nonprofit BellTel Retirees Inc.
