Luis Ramos was a well-known figure in his Jersey City neighborhood for decades. Ramos was the unofficial \u201cMayor of Ogden Avenue,\u201d and spent nearly 30 years taking care of Janet Moore Park, according to the Jersey City Times (1). Whether it was mowing lawns, planting flowers or greeting generations of families who passed through the community green space, Ramos was there.<\/p>\n
But while he faithfully showed up to work year after year, 95-year-old Ramos says he was missing out on something that could have changed his retirement dramatically: a pension. Now living with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, Ramos learned he may have qualified for pension benefits decades ago.<\/p>\n
Must Read <\/p>\n
The discovery has sparked legal action, prompting the city to acknowledge a historic enrollment failure and raised questions about how many workers could be missing retirement benefits they\u2019re entitled to receive.<\/p>\n
A lifetime of work with no retirement benefits <\/p>\n
Ramos was hired by Jersey City\u2019s Public Works Department in September 1995. According to his daughter, Miriam Romero, city officials repeatedly told her father he wasn\u2019t eligible to enroll in the state\u2019s pension system because he was considered a seasonal employee.<\/p>\n
Romero claims that employment records later showed he was actually classified as a permanent provisional employee as of 1998, a status that should have qualified him for pension participation.<\/p>\n
Ramos continued working even though his health was declining because he never thought he would receive retirement benefits. Even after the death of his wife in 2024, he reportedly kept showing up for work earning about $18 an hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kept working and working because he was told he was not going to get a pension,\u201d Romero said.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until his daughter began digging through decades-old pay stubs and employment documents that she found what she believes was a costly mistake.<\/p>\n
Using records her father had carefully saved for years, Romero reconstructed his employment history and presented evidence that he should have been enrolled in the pension system long ago.<\/p>\n
City officials say (1) they have agreed to pay the full $39,342 needed to bring Ramos\u2019s Public Employees Retirement System account current, covering both employee and employer contributions. The city has also committed to providing premium-free health care benefits, though the family continues to pursue additional damages.<\/p>\n
Story Continues <\/p>\n
But for his family, the consequences go beyond missed monthly pension checks. Romero says the lack of retirement benefits created years of hardship for the family, including limiting her work hours so she could care for her father and renovating a section of the house so that her son could also move in and help.<\/p>\n
Romero says, \u201cWe would have been able to put him in the nursing home down the block,\u201d if they had known about the pension earlier.<\/p>\n
Read More: Taxes are going to change under Trump\u2019s \u2018big beautiful bill\u2019 \u2014 4 reasons you can\u2019t afford to waste time<\/a><\/p>\n How to check to see if you\u2019re owed money from a former job <\/p>\n Ramos\u2019s story highlights a reality many workers never consider: retirement benefits can slip through the cracks, especially after job changes, mergers, layoffs or decades-long careers.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure if you might be owed money, here are a few steps worth taking (2):<\/p>\n Review old employment records. Pay stubs, offer letters, W-2s, pension statements and union documents can help you figure out if there are any workplace retirement plans you can cash in on.<\/p>\n Contact former employers. Even if a company has changed ownership or restructured, human resources departments might still be able to verify whether you participated in a pension or retirement plan.<\/p>\n Check with state unclaimed-property databases. Retirement distributions, dormant accounts and other financial assets sometimes end up in state custody. You can search the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) database (3) by first and last name.<\/p>\n Search for missing retirement benefits. The federal government\u2019s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) (4)maintains a searchable database of unclaimed pension benefits. Workers can also check records through the U.S. Department of Labor and Social Security Administration.<\/p>\n Review union records if applicable. Workers covered by collective bargaining agreements may have access to separate pension plans administered through unions or multi-employer benefit funds.<\/p>\n Keep documents. Ramos\u2019s case may never have come to light if his family hadn\u2019t held onto employment records dating back decades.<\/p>\n While you may not discover that you had previously qualified for a pension, it could be worth checking if you\u2019ve had multiple jobs in the past. A forgotten retirement account, unclaimed pension or overlooked workplace benefit could represent thousands of dollars that rightfully belong to you.<\/p>\n You May Also Like <\/p>\n Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/p>\n Article Sources <\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jcitytimes (1<\/a>); Kiplinger (2<\/a>); National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (3<\/a>); Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (4<\/a>)<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: A Jersey City man worked into his 90s for $18 an hour because a clerical error prevented him from claiming a pension<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luis Ramos was a well-known figure in his Jersey City neighborhood for decades. Ramos was the unofficial \u201cMayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,8497,258578,133,8848,258575,258576,66767,131,132,1705,258577],"class_list":["post-713470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-city","tag-employment-records","tag-finance","tag-jersey-city","tag-luis-ramos","tag-miriam-romero","tag-pension-benefits","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement","tag-seasonal-employee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}