“A bill to increase the benefits guaranteed in connection with certain pension plans, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises PBGC guaranteed benefit calculations under section 4022 of ERISA (29 U.S.C. 1322) for eligible participants and beneficiaries in six specified terminated single-employer plans (i.e., Delphi Hourly-Rate Employees Pension Plan; Delphi Retirement Program for Salaried Employees; PHI Non-Bargaining Retirement Plan; ASEC Manufacturing Retirement Program; PHI Bargaining Retirement Plan; and Delphi Mechatronic Systems Retirement Program). (As background, PBGC's single-employer program guarantees vested pension benefits, subject to a 60-month phase-in limit for certain benefit increases and a maximum monthly benefit limitation—currently approximately $7,000 at age 65, indexed to the Social Security wage base from a 1974 baseline of $750 times the ratio of current to 1974 bases.) For these individuals—who are in pay status or eligible for future payments as of enactment, whose prior payments did not exceed full vested plan benefits, and who are not covered by 1999 General Motors-union top-up agreements—the guaranteed monthly benefit equals the full vested plan benefit (i.e., the section 4022 guarantee disregarding the phase-in limit in subsection (b)(1) and maximum benefit limitation in subsection (b)(3), including the accrued-at-normal retirement age restriction). The provision requires PBGC to recalculate any pre-enactment benefit determinations accordingly and adjust future payments; within 180 days of enactment and in consultation with the Secretaries of Treasury and Labor, PBGC must issue lump-sum payments of past-due amounts (reflecting the excess of full vested benefits over prior payments), plus foregone interest at a 6% annual rate. PBGC prior determinations of asset allocations and recoveries under sections 4044(a) and 4022(c) remain unchanged, and new determinations under this section are subject to administrative review.