07/31/23

What is Recoupment?

I received a letter from my pension plan stating that it has been overpaying me. The letter says that the plan is going to reduce my monthly payments and that I will also have to pay an additional amount to the plan. What can I do? In recent years, the Pension Rights Center has seen […]


10/30/15

The Pension Accountability Act

In the last days of 2014, Congress passed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) as part of a year-end budget compromise. As a result of MPRA’s enactment, for the first time in 40 years multiemployer pension plan trustees have been given the authority to cut already earned retiree pension benefits while a plan […]


08/25/15

Companies that are offering lump-sum pension buyouts

Note: This list is updated on an ongoing basis. Below is a list of employers that have announced that they are offering lump-sum pension buyouts to certain groups of employees, former employees, or retirees. For specifics, click on the employer’s name to see the company’s press release, SEC filing, or news story announcing the change […]


08/17/15

Should you take your pension as a lump sum?

Updated: August 2015 Some companies have offered to cash out the pensions of certain retirees and former employees and instead give them a one-time lump-sum payment. While the idea of suddenly having a large sum of money is tempting, this is a decision that you will have to live with for the rest of your life. […]


06/30/15

How the Keep Our Pension Promises Act Would Save the Central States Pension Fund

The Keep Our Pension Promises Act would make it possible for the largest of the severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans, the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF), to continue to pay promised benefits to its 205,000 retirees. This is because money that would be transferred by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to the plan each […]


06/29/15

Keep Our Pension Promises Act of 2015

The Keep Our Pension Promises Act of 2015 repeals the “benefit suspension” provisions of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) enacted at the end of the last Congress. Those provisions allow the trustees of certain financially-troubled multiemployer pension plans to reduce the benefits of retirees and their widows and widowers. The Keep Our […]


05/28/15

Summary of the pension cutback provisions in the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014

In December 2014, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the 2015 Omnibus spending bill, which included provisions of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 that allow trustees of certain multiemployer plans to cut retirees’ pensions. Below is a summary of these provisions. Related: Read our fact sheet on multiemployer plan funding. See a […]


10/01/14

Facts About Multiemployer Pension Plan Funding

This fact sheet explains funding issues in multiemployer pension plans and how the guarantee limits set by the Pension Benefity Guaranty Corporation could impact your multiemployer plan pension. Related: Read our summary of the pension cutback provisions (part of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014) that were included in the 2014 Omnibus spending law. See a list of […]


01/03/11

PBGC Premium Increase

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a federal corporation that insures most defined benefit plans in the United States.  The PBGC is funded solely by premiums paid by plan sponsors.  Currently the PBGC is experiencing deficits due to the large amount of plans which are terminated with insufficient funds to cover all its liabilities. […]


12/21/10

Federal Pension Insurance Protections

In 1974, Congress created a federal pension insurance program for certain private retirement plans. This program is administered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). What plans are protected by the PBGC? Most traditional private pension plans, commonly known as defined benefit plans, are protected by the PBGC, but not all. For example, certain plans covering […]