{"id":220586,"date":"2025-09-12T10:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/220586\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T10:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:07:10","slug":"houston-retirees-waiting-for-pensions-payments-for-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/220586\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston retirees waiting for pensions payments for months"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly 300 retired city employees\u00a0in a Democrat-led city\u00a0are reportedly still waiting to receive their pension payments, months after accepting early retirement packages as part of a cost-cutting initiative.<\/p>\n<p>At a city council meeting Wednesday,\u00a0Houston Mayor John Whitmire\u00a0pushed back against criticism that the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System (HMEPS) failed to issue payments, stressing he has no authority over the fund, according to local news outlet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.khou.com\/article\/news\/local\/houston-pension-board-chair-retirees-payments\/285-af03d6a4-d0ce-4fad-8e7c-dbb5830f8745\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">KHOU 11 News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no control over the pension fund,\u201d Whitmire said. \u201cWe\u2019ve explained that repeatedly, provided the data to our daily paper, but that\u2019s not what they want to write, and neither does one of my critics want to show the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than 1,000 city employees accepted early retirement packages in May to help trim city spending.<\/p>\n<p>That number far outpaces HMEPS\u2019 usual average of\u00a039 retirements\u00a0per month, board Chair Sherry Mose told KHOU 11 News.<\/p>\n<p>Houston Mayor John Whitmire speaks during a city council meeting on Sept. 10, 2025. KHOU 11<\/p>\n<p>Retirees were originally told it would take about 30 to 60 days to receive their pension payments, but that timeline has not been met, according\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/post\/city-houston-retiree-says-shes-been-waiting-months-early-retirement-money-taking-citys-buyout-deal\/17589497\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to ABC13<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI strongly regret retiring,\u201d Kathy Caldwell, a retired City of Houston employee who has become increasingly anxious amid mounting bills, told ABC13. \u201cI strongly regret it, and I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m getting ready to cry. I don\u2019t want to, but it\u2019s a lot. It\u2019s a lot. It\u2019s a lot. I need help. I need my money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All\u00a0outstanding payments\u00a0are expected to be issued by the end of September, according to Mose.<\/p>\n<p>Outraged Houston residents wait in line outside the city council meeting to discuss their pensions. KHOU 11<\/p>\n<p>Houston city council members and Mayor Whitmire during a meeting. KHOU 11<\/p>\n<p>She explained that delays have stemmed from timing issues, as well as errors in the paperwork submitted by some retirees, including missing documents like birth certificates and marriage licenses, KHOU 11 News reported.<\/p>\n<p>To address the issue, HMEPS has brought\u00a0on additional staff, and staff has been working overtime, Mose told KHOU 11 News, noting that her office has received more than 13,000 calls regarding the missing payments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy board members, everyone\u2019s been working on this. It\u2019s not being placed on the back burner,\u201d Mose said.<\/p>\n<p>HMEPS is a government-run defined benefit pension plan that offers disability, retirement and survivor benefits to City of Houston employees and HMEPS staff. It serves more than 25,000 people, according to its website.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Whitmire and HMEPS did not immediately respond to FOX Business\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 300 retired city employees\u00a0in a Democrat-led city\u00a0are reportedly still waiting to receive their pension payments, months after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":220587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,7033,4345,8707,255,700,358,67,132,68,1154],"class_list":{"0":"post-220586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-democrats","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-pensions","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-retirement","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-us-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115190775545708597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}