Thursday at a Harrisburg train station, Pennsylvania State Treasurer Barbara Hafer announced the names of 2,174 names who may be eligible for death benefits based on information obtained by the Department of Treasury and reviewed by MetLife, the current administrator of the insurance policies.
\nOf the 2,174 names released by the Treasury Department, 14 were from Northern Blair County.
\n\u201cIf you are the spouse, sibling, child or grandchild of one of the railroad workers on the list, you could be the beneficiary and owed $2,000 in unpaid deth benefits,\u201d the treasurer said. \u201cI commend MetLife for joining us in our efforts to pay these funds to the beneficiaries of hardworking eligible railroad retirees of Pennsylvania and in other states.\u201d
\nHafer made the announcement with AFL-CIO Presdent Bill George and other union officials at her side.
\nRailroads began paying the group life insurance policies for their workers in 1964.
\n\u201cWe fought hard to create this benefit for our members,\u201d said George. \u201cThe AFL-CIO\u2019s and other affiliated unions are committed to working with Treasurer Hafer and determined to see that all the eligible beneficiaries of former Pennsylvania railroad workers are paid in full.\u201d
\nThe 14 names from Northern Blair County are:
\n\u2022 Virginia Condol, formerly of Park Avenue, Tyrone
\n\u2022 Wilbur Estep, formerly of Bellwood
\n\u2022 Paul Femea, formerly of Pennsylvania Avenue, Tyrone
\n\u2022 Helen Fowler, formerly of Tyrone
\n\u2022 Elmer Greene, formerly of General Jones Drive, Tyrone
\n\u2022 Phillip Haag, formerly of Jefferson Avenue, Tyrone
\n\u2022 John W. Harlow, formerly of RD #1, Tyrone
\n\u2022 William Heller, formerly of Bellview Avenue, Bellwood
\n\u2022 Ellery Hillard, formerly of Epworth Manor, Tyrone
\n\u2022 Leon Loose, formerly of 11th Street, Tyrone
\n\u2022 Henry McCulloch, formerly of amlin Avenue, Tyrone
\n\u2022 Charles Pryor, formerly of Tyrone
\n\u2022 William Rollason, formerly of Tyrone
\n\u2022 Charles Zanghi, formerly of Washington Avenue, Tyrone.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no reason these families should be made to wait any longer,\u201d Hafer said. \u201cWe think the money should go to them, not the state, and it should go to them now, not years from now.\u201d
\nThe benefits are due to railroad workers who passed away between 1996 and April of 2001.
\nThe railroad workers\u2019 life insurance policies were originally issued by Travelers Insurance Company to participating railroads under group life insurance policies issued to the Health and Welfare Plan of the Nation\u2019s Railroads and the Railway Labor Organizations. MetLife became the administrator of the policies in 1995.
\nTreasury officials are reviewing information pertaining to Pennsylvania railroad workers who died between 1964 and 1995 and will continue working with MetLife to determine potential unclaimed benefits.
\nResponse to the unclaimed property notice has been significant in a short period of time.
\n\u201cBetween the secretary making the announcement on Thursday and the close of business on Friday, we received 275 phone calls and 375 e-mails before anything hit the papers,\u201d said Steve Schell, press secretary for the Treasury department. \u201cMany of the families did not know of this benefit. This was a group policy that the railroad workers started on their first day of employment.
\nTo get your claim started, call the toll free number 1-800-237-9757 or you can e-mail railroadworkers@patreasury.org.
\nHave the name of the deceased, social security number, date of retirement, date of death and union involvement handy to help speed up your claim.
\nThe phones were busy all Monday morning. It may be to your benefit to e-mail your claim.
\n\u201cThis started from a group of 329,000 names of deceased railroad workers,\u201d said Schell. \u201cWe compared names with MetLife and came up with a list of over 2,100 who haven\u2019t received their death benefits.\u201d
\nIf you feel that you have an unclaimed benefit, contact the Treasury Department for assistance.
\n\u201cWe only have records from 1996 when MetLife went computerized with their records,\u201d said Schell. \u201cWe are looking back from 1964 when these policies started until 1996 to get the benefits in the hands of the families.\u201d
\nIf the benefits continue to go unclaimed, they will become property of the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday at a Harrisburg train station, Pennsylvania State Treasurer Barbara Hafer announced the names of 2,174 names who may be eligible for death benefits based on information obtained by the Department of Treasury and reviewed by MetLife, the current administrator of the insurance policies. Of the 2,174 names released by the Treasury Department, 14 were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}