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PBGC Posts Data on Single-Employer Program

Government Affairs

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has begun posting its Data Tables that provide data on fiscal years (FY) 2017 and 2018, which include statistics concerning its single-employer and multiemployer programs and the private pension system.

The new data the PBGC has posted so far provides detailed information concerning claims, financial position, premium revenue, benefits payments and administrative expenses involving the single-employer program.

The Single-Employer Program

The PBGC reports that 2018 brought a surfeit of good news to its single-employer program. The program’s assets were at the highest levels since 2014; its liabilities, while still higher than at almost any other time in the program’s history, fell by almost $1 billion since 2016, the year liabilities peaked; and the net position, whose deficit was halved from 2016 to 2017, improved even more dramatically by 2018 and hit surplus levels.

Net Financial Position, PBGC Single-Employer Program
(Figures in Millions of Dollars)

 

Fiscal Year Assets Liabilities Net Position Net Position, Previous Year to Current Year
2015 85,735 109,800 -24,065 -4,727
2016 97,342 117,922 -20,580 +3,485
2017 106,196 117,110 -10,914 +9,666
2018 109,941 107,502 +2,439 +13,353

Premiums

The PBGC reports that the news in FY 2018 was not as good for the PBGC regarding premiums and payments as it was in the previous two years. Premium revenue had been consistently growing, but slipped in 2018; meanwhile, benefits payments the PBGC continued to rise.

PBGC Premium Revenue, Benefits Payments and Other Expenses
(Figures in Millions of Dollars)

 

Fiscal Year Total Premium Revenue Benefits Payments by the PBGC Administrative & Investment Expenses Premiums Less Benefits Paid and Expenses
2015 4,138 5,570 446 -1878
2016 6,379 5,659 465 255
2017 6,739 5,699 481 559
2018 5,518 5,792 489

-763

 

Claims

Claims made on the PBGC Single-Employer Program have been volatile — they jumped from 2015-2016, only to be more than cut in half from 2016 to 2017.

PBGC Claims

 

Fiscal Year Claims Change from Previous Year
2015 $689,647,478 -$101,406,598
2016 $944,330,784 +254,683,306
2017 $391,096,322 -$553,234,462

 

The PBGC says that claims from the top 10 firms making claims during the period 1975-2017 accounted for 52.2% of the claims; the rest of the companies making claims accounted for the other 47.8%.