a 

! I #h Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 

! p-ffiac 1200 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005-4026 

Y 

NOV 2 5 2002 

Re: Appeal Republic Retirement Plan (the 

"Plan") 

The Appeals Board reviewed your appeal of PBGC1s February 21, 

1997 determination of your benefit under the Plan. For the reasons 

stated below, the Appeals Board found that you presented no basis 

for changing PBGC's determination. 

Determination and Appeal 

PBGC's determination letter said that you are entitled to a 

guaranteed monthly benefit of $704.11 payable as a Straight Life 

Annuity ("SLA"), which provides a benefit for your lifetime and no 

survivor benefit, starting on May 1, 2004, your earliest unreduced 

retirement date under the Plan. It said that you could elect to 

start receiving your benefit as early as May 1, 2000 but that your 

benefit,would be reduced to reflect the longer period of payment. 

The letter also said that if you were married when you started 

receiving your benefit, you would receive a reduced monthly amount 

payable as a Joint and 50% Survivor Annuity ("J&50%SA1'), which 

provides a benefit for your lifetime, and if you die first, your 

wife would receive one-half of the benefit you were receiving. The 

letter noted that you could choose to waive the J&SO%SA with your 

wife's written consent (which you did on April 10, 20001, in which 

case, your benefit would be payable as an SLA. With your 

determination letter, PBGC included a Benefit Statement to show how 

PBGC calculated your benefit. 

PBGC's files show that you elected to start receiving your 

benefit on May 1, 2000. Since that date, PBGC has been paying you 

a monthly benefit of $396.20 as a SLA. 

In your March 3, 1997 appeal, you said that according to your 

calculations, you are entitled to a monthly benefit of $837.81 at 

age 62 instead of the $704.11 amount PBGC determined you are 

entitled to receive. You said that by totaling your pay stubs, you 

calculated higher five-year totals, namely, (1) $226,387 or 

$3,773.12 per month, fromoctober 1, 1981 through December 31, 1985 
IS 

m (the Date of the Benefit Freeze), and (2) $227,264.46 or $3,787.74 

'? per month, from October 1, 1981 through September 30, 1986. Also, C 

I- you said that LTV Steel Corporation ("LTV") gave you a copy of your s base pay record and that for the two periods mentioned above you I !a calculated your total earnings to be $230,156 or $3,835.93 per 

month, and $226,973.46 or $3,782.89 per month. Your appeal 

requested recalculation of your pension benefit using this salary 

information. 

Discussion 

Enclosures 1 and 2 contain the Plan provisions that PBGC used 

to calculate your Plan-defined Average Monthly Earnings ("AME") 

under the 1983 Plan and the 1986 Plan, respectively. Please note 

that the Plan's definition of "earnings" used in calculating your 

pension benefit does not include all of your actual earnings during 

the applicable time periods. Enclosure 3 shows how PBGC calculated 

your monthly Plan~defined earnings based on your salary history 

(Enclosure 4), the Plan's Cost-of-Living Adjustments (Enclosure 5), 

and LTV's calculation of your earnings (Enclosure 6). After 

reviewing the calculations, the Appeals Board found that PBGC 

correctly calculated your AME under both the 1983 Plan and the 1986 

Plan. 

Your appeal also said that June 10, 1964 is your correct hire 

date and not July 1, 1968, which is the date shown on your PBGC 

Benefit Statement. You included several pay stubs from Republic 

Steel to verify your employment during this period (1964 through 

1968). With your permission. the Appeals Board obtained a copy of 

your Social Security Earnings record. See Enclosure 7. 

Both the 1983 Plan and the 1986 Plan define "continuous 

service" as service calculated from the Employee's 

"last hiring date (this means in the case of a break in 

continuous service, continuous service shall be 

calculated from the date of reemployment following last 

unremoved break in continuous service) in accordance with 

the following provisions; provided, however, that the 

last hiring date shall be based on the practice in effect 

at the time the break occurred; ..." (emphasis ours). 

Your Social Security Earnings records show that you had no 

earnings with Republic Steel during the last quarter of 1967 and 

the first two quarters of 1968. Under the original 1970 Plan 

document (see Enclosure 8), the Plan did not provide for removal of 

a break-in-service at all if your break-in-service was the result 
E 

tn of quitting. On the other hand, if you were discharged, a 

I? . break-in-service would be removed if you were reemployed within six 

>- 

5 months. The six-month requirement changed to 12 months sometime 

after you were reemployed, and thus, does not apply to your I 

10 situation. The Board concluded, in agreement with your LTV record 

card (see Enclosure 41, that your 9-month break-in-service was not 

removable under the practice in effect at the time you incurred 

your break-in-service in 1967. Thus, your last hiring date 

(July 1, 1968) is your date of hire for purposes of calculating 

your pension benefit payable under the Plan. 

Decision 

Having applied Plan provisions to the facts in your case, we 

found that you presented no basis for changing PBGC's 

determination. 

This decision is the final agency action on the issues you 

raised in your appeal. You have exhausted your administrative 

remedies, and may, if you wish, seek court review of this decision. 

If you have additional questions, please call PBGC's Customer 

Service Center at 1-800-400-7242. 

Sincerely, 

Michel ~ouis 

Appeals Board Member 

Enclosures (8)