For 36 Years, JPMorgan Chase Has Denied A $331 Monthly Pension To An Employee's Widow. The Sum In Question? 'Only' $53,000

For over three decades, one of America's largest banks, JPMorgan Chase JPM, has refused to pay out a $331 monthly pension to Elaine Silverberg, widow of one of their former longtime employees, according to The New York Post. The publisher recently reported on the ordeal that has left the widow fighting for what should be hers – a battle she has been waging for over 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 passed away at just 43 years old in 1988 due to multiple organ failure, leaving Elaine, who was just 37, to raise their three children alone. Since then, Melvyn’s $53,000 pension from his 10 years at the bank has been in limbo for more than 36 years as Elaine has battled to collect it upon her retirement.

In a statement to the New York Post, JPMorgan Chase admitted that Melvyn had earned a vested retirement package but claimed that he had failed to complete the necessary paperwork to elect his wife as a beneficiary. Unfortunately, Mel passed away before the 1984 Retirement Equity Act, which automatically granted pension benefits to spouses, came into effect. 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 payments.

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Elaine, now 73, said that the company has treated her like “an insignificant cockroach just to be stepped on.” The bank has not backed down despite her repeated pleas and even enlisting the help of Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and former New York congressman Eliot Engel.

According to the Social Security Administration, the pension should payout $331 monthly, which isn’t exactly a life-altering amount for a bank that made almost $13 billion in profits in the third quarter alone this year. 

JPMorgan Chase says they sympathize with Elaine but cannot make an exception without the required paperwork. To add insult to injury, correspondence reviewed by the paper shows that the bank allegedly contacted Melvyn multiple times after his death, including once in 1990, asking him to elect for spousal coverage – two years after he had already passed away.

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Elaine argues that she never received these letters and has been denied what is rightfully hers due to bureaucracy and technicalities. According to a senior lawyer at the mid-Atlantic Pension Counseling Project, the bank’s reasoning is “weak” and highlights a common problem in which pension plans place the burden of evidence on widows like Elaine, who have to “prove a negative” years later.

For a bank like JPMorgan, $53,000 isn’t much, but to Elaine, it is a testament to her husband’s efforts and the stability he worked so hard to create. “This is a lot of money to me,” she said. “For them, it's just a joke.”

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