BOSTON — If you believe you’re entitled to receive a benefit from a pension or other retirement-savings plan, but can’t find the person or organization responsible, here are some resources:

Pension Booklet: Check out “Finding a Lost Pension,” a booklet published by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

It includes tips on where to look for a lost pension, and what steps to take if you can — or cannot — find it.

You may download a copy from the PBGC Web site:

www.pbgc.gov

(Click on the “Press & Policymakers” tab at the top of the screen, then on “PBGC Publications.”)

To obtain a free copy by mail, write: PBGC Communications and Public Affairs Department, 1200 K St., NW, Washington, DC 20005-4026.

Online Search Tool: The PBGC is holding about $133 million in unclaimed pension benefits. These benefits are owed to about 32,000 people whose traditional pension plans have “terminated” (which essentially means that the plans have shut down).

The agency offers an online search tool for people who may have lost track of their pension benefits at some point during their career:

www.pbgc.gov/search

(If you don’t have Internet access, you probably know someone who does. Many public libraries, colleges and universities also have free Internet access.)

Search by your last name, the company’s name, or the state in which the company has or had its headquarters.

The current list has the names of a number of companies that have or had operations in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. They include:

•Blount Seafood Corp.,

•Cranston General Hospital,

•Dorothy Williams Inc.

•East Providence Credit Union

•Emblem & Badge

•Fairmount Foundry Co.

•Groden Center Inc.

•Jay Packaging Group Inc.

•Kenney Manufacturing Co.,

•Lincoln Lace & Braid Co.

•Mason Manufacturing Co.

•National Plating Inc.

•Pawtucket Screw Co.

•Rosbro Plastics Co

•Tanya Creations

•Washburn Wire Co.

•Woonsocket Textiles Inc.

Your name may be included in the directory if your former employer closed your pension plan, distributed benefits and you didn’t receive any even though you were owed one.

Your name may also be included if your plan was taken over by the PBGC but you couldn’t be found to pay you the benefit due.

Although the online directory is regularly updated, it doesn’t include all names. So even if you aren’t on the list, or the list doesn’t include the name of your former employer, you still may be owed a pension, and should obtain a copy of the booklet mentioned above to find out which steps to take.

Social Security: If you’ve earned the right to a pension benefit, your name may have been forwarded to the Social Security Administration.

That’s because the agency maintains a database that includes the name of people who, according to the Internal Revenue Service, have qualified for pension benefits under private retirement plans.

If you’re on the list, and you apply to start collecting Social Security benefits, the agency will send you a notice containing any information the agency has on file about your pension benefit, said Kurt Czarnowski, regional communications director for the Social Security Administration in Boston.

You can also ask the agency to provide any information it has on file about your vested pension benefits by writing: OCO Office of Earnings Operations, Attention: ERISA Correspondence Group, P.O. Box 33007, Baltimore, MD 21290-3307.

Include your Social Security number, name, address, date of birth, parents’ names and your signature. Also include the name of the pension plan, and the month and year that you ended employment covered by the plan.

In addition, you must include the following Privacy Act penalty statement:

“I certify that I am the person to whom the record pertains, or that person’s parent (if a minor) or legal guardian, or a person who is authorized to sign on behalf of that individual. I know that the knowing and willful request or acquisition of records under false pretenses is a criminal offense subject to a fine of up to $5,000.”

Pension Rights: The Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit group based in Washington, has a Web site that’s full of information about pension rules and what can happen to pensions, such as pension conversions, pension freezes and pension terminations:

www.pensionrights.org

ndowning@projo.com