For more than three decades, one of the largest banks in the United States, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), has refused to pay a monthly pension of $331 to Elaine Silverberg, the widow of one of its former employees, according to The New York Post. The editor recently reported on the ordeal that left the widow fighting for what should be hers, a battle she has been fighting for more than 13 years.
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Elaine’s late husband, Melvyn Silverberg, worked for Chase Manhattan Bank as a systems analyst until 1979. Tragically, he died at just 43 years old in 1988 due to multiple organ failure, leaving Elaine, who was only 37 years old, in charge of raise her three children. only. Since then, the $53,000 pension Melvyn received from his 10 years at the bank has been in limbo for more than 36 years while Elaine has struggled to collect it when she retires.
In a statement to the New York Post, JPMorgan Chase admitted that Melvyn had earned a vested retirement package, but claimed that he had not completed the necessary paperwork to choose his wife as the beneficiary. Unfortunately, Mel passed away before the Retirement Fairness Act of 1984 went into effect, which automatically provided pension benefits to spouses. Because Mel’s employment ended before this law was passed, the bank has used this technicality to argue that Elaine is not entitled to any payment.
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Elaine, now 73, said the company has treated her like “an insignificant cockroach that just needs to be stepped on.” The bank has not backed down despite his repeated pleas and even enlisting the help of Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and former New York Congressman Eliot Engel.
According to the Social Security Administration, the pension should pay $331 a month, which isn’t exactly a life-changing amount for a bank that made nearly $13 billion in profits in the third quarter of this year alone.
JPMorgan Chase says they sympathize with Elaine but cannot make an exception without the required documentation. Adding insult to injury, correspondence reviewed by the newspaper shows that the bank allegedly contacted Melvyn several times after his death, including once in 1990, asking him to elect spousal coverage, two years after his death.