Benefits

For those unfortunate folks who are about to get go, Here is a little advice (I took the retirement package last fall).

I took the lump sum and it didnt work out great because the market tanked. It was the smart move at the time, but given the market conditions, would I do it again? No because I dont have any faith in the 5-10 year market performance. You might have a different opinion.
Be prepared to spend a lot of time on the phone with Via Benefits. I was a single guy, no dependents under 18 and it was a HUGE mess. 1st, they do not understand the continuation of Ford benefits or COBRA or Marketplace insurance right away. It took me numerous calls to explain to them that we had 6 months of free health and dental. 2nd, they want to talk talk talk instead of listen listen listen. I had to interrupt their canned spiel each time because their script was not written with Ford circumstances in mind. Dont let them bowl you over with their speeches. You are the driver, not them. 3rd, when you get an answer from them that seems appropriate, call back a day later to talk to someone else to see it their answer matches the one from yesterday. I found that several times the answers conflicted with each other. Dont give up until you are 100% satisfied. 4th, At the end of your health care term, they will try and shoe-ho-n you into a health and dental plan. Dont just take their word for it, do the research. Their website will come up with 60, 70 different plan options and it will seem like a mind numbing experience, but it will be worth your time. 5th, Remember that if you take all of your income this year and dont get another job you will have a much lower earned income next year. That means that you may qualify for government subsidized health care. In my case, even taking into consideration the $500 month Ford supplement, my healthcare costs would have been in excess of $700 per month! After figuring that I was going to live on my 6 months lump sum + early social security for most of this year, my healthcare turned into @ $70 + $40 for dental..... Moral of the story is do your homework. You will be better off for it.
Forget about the NESC. The only thing they were good for was resetting a password.

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People joining Ford motor Company model E or Blue
Think about how management look at you in 20 year
If you joining this sh*t Company make sure it is a 36 month training

Now this is a shining example of a great post. Thanks!

Now is the perfect time to take the lump sum! The market is down. Put it in the market and watch it grow, grow, grow! $$$$

If Ford gives you 6 months medical, you will be allowed 12 months COBRA after that. Right that train as long as you can. You won’t find a better deal. If you can, take the pension and forget the lump sum. The lump is about 15 years of pension. As I’ve read, find your lump sum number and shop around for an annuity for that money. See what it gets you. My guess the monthly pension will be better than what you’re going to find on the open market. Google “Safety First” approach to retirement. Listen to some podcasts on retirement. The Retirement Answer Man is a good resource. Don’t use VIA Benefits other than to get money back.

Thank you @OP for taking the time to write this.

Good advice. I was let go during SRD and it seemed like my full time job for weeks was trying to resolve the Ford mess. It took many weeks before money from severance, unused paid time off and final check was deposited. I was eligible for Ford pension so I was trying to resolve that as well. NESC is a joke. You wait on hold for 45 minutes to two hours only to talk to someone who appears to know little about Ford benefits and policies. Each time you get a different person and have to tell your entire story again. You ask a question and they look it up in a manual and give you a useless answer or open a ticket for someone to call you back days later with a useless answer.

And watch your bank account closely. After my severance period was over they started deducting $1,700 a month from my account for COBRA. They were using my routing information to deduct money from my bank account! I didn’t need or want COBRA and had never signed up for it nor did I give permission to debit my account. It took many hours of waiting on hold and weeks to get that resolved and get my money back. Each time they would explain that the deduction was for COBRA and I’d explain, again, that I did not request COBRA or approve debits to my account.

Thank you Ford for making a stressful time even worse.

In addition be prepared for them to send your final pay and PTO several months after leaving AND for there to be discrepancies with that. They will send you your final PTO compensation by check. Be prepared to spend months going back and forth with payroll over your total paid compensation. Some of the other folks on here didn't receive their earned PTO until the next year.

That's alot of info and well-appreciated.
This is a good forum for this info.
Thank you.

Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Benefits

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