The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a United States federally chartered corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to encourage the continuation and maintenance of voluntary private defined benefit pension plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits, and keep pension insurance premiums at the lowest level necessary to carry out its operations.[3] Subject to other statutory limitations, PBGC's single-employer insurance program pays pension benefits up to the maximum guaranteed benefit set by law to participants who retire at 65 ($6,750 a month, as of 2023). The benefits payable to insured retirees who start their benefits at ages other than 65 or elect survivor coverage are adjusted to be equivalent in value.[4] The maximum monthly guarantee for the multiemployer program is far lower and more complicated ($12,870 a year for a participant with 30 years of credited service).[5]
In fiscal year 2022, PBGC added 32 more failed single-employer plans. PBGC's inventory was 5,110 plans, and paid $7.042 billion in benefits to 963,097 retirees in those plans. That year, PBGC also paid $226 million in financial assistance to 115 multiemployer pension plans on behalf of 93,525 retirees. The agency has a total of $90.252 billion in obligations and $127.887 billion in assets for an overall surplus of $37.629 billion, an improvement of $6.214 billion since the prior year. The multiemployer program has a surplus of $1.055 billion and the single employer program a surplus of $36.574 billion.