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Check your final payout amount   (Sep 1, 2023)

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Check that you actually received the gross (pre-tax-withholding) severance payment or PRP bonus that you are supposed to get. (The withholding tax rate may be very high. It is calculated per IRS formula as though you make that much on every check throughout the year. You will get credit for this when you do your taxes.)

A couple of members have indicated that they didn't receive the correct amount -- caused by incorrect data in HP's system for their termination date, years of service, part-time vs. full-time status, or some other factor.

Service at predecessor companies. Of HPInc's many predecessor companies, only HP and DEC ever had retiree healthcare programs. Only HP, DEC, and EDS ever had pension plans. Over the years, HP, DEC, and EDS set aside money in dedicated trust funds to pay for those programs. Compaq, Tandem, Autonomy, etc. did not have retiree healthcare or pensions among their benefits programs. Their employees did not have those expectations -- and there were no corresponding trust funds to pass on to an acquiring company. Therefore, employees of those companies do not get credit under HP's retiree healthcare or pension programs for service at the predecessor. Predecessor service generally did count for other benefits. Details: DEC  EDS

The key document for a US employee retirement or health plan is the legal Summary Plan Description (SPD). It includes plan details and an address at the employer for appeals. The current SPD takes precedence over any other written, online, or verbal information you may have been given -- but is still subject to change. The employer's plan administrator is required by law to provide the SPD upon request. How to obtain and decode: https://www.hpalumni.org/SPD-decode

As part of the WFR or PRP, you received an SPD, which defines how your severance payment or PRP bonus are to be calculated.

In addition, an SPD gives the procedure to deal with errors, including:

1. An address to file a formal written claim with the company and

2. A second address to appeal a denied claim at Corporate Legal.

Note that there are deadlines. Get direct confirmation of receipt with a signature.  At a Post Office window, you can specify Certified Mail combined with Return Receipt. Details on U.S. Postal Service website: https://www.usps.com > Mail & Ship > Insurance & Extra Services  Be sure that the person at the post office window stamps your copy of the mailing forms with the mailing date.

The wording refers to "ERISA" -- the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA.) This is a legal issue involving conformance to federal law.

3. The third level of escalation is with your state's Department of Labor, which is charged with enforcing state law. (For example, one member referred to submitting a "Wage and Hour Complaint Form" to the Colorado Department of Labor.)

With the large number of people being laid off, the resulting workload for people handling these issues, and the separation into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise -- there are plenty of opportunities for error.

Check the numbers!

Question? Email: info@hpalumni.org