The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. approved $49.3 million in special financial assistance for a struggling multiemployer plan in the transportation industry.
The Local 210's Pension Plan, based in New York City, will receive the funding through the SFA program, the PBGC said in a news release Oct. 27.
The plan covers 3,887 participants in the transportation industry and was projected to become insolvent in 2026. Insolvency would have required the plan to reduce benefits to roughly 10% below the benefits payable under the terms of the plan, but the SFA program will enable the plan to pay benefits without reduction for many years into the future, according to the PBGC.
"Millions of people work for years, looking forward to the day when the promise of a secure, dignified retirement is kept," Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said in the news release. "Today, the Biden-Harris administration is delivering on that promise for 3,887 transportation workers in New York by providing Special Financial Assistance to the Local 210's Pension Plan."
The SFA program was created under the American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed in March 2021, to help financially struggling multiemployer plans.
The Local 210's Pension Plan had a funding ratio of 15.9% with approximately $134.5 million in projected benefit obligations as of Jan. 1, 2022, according to the plan's most recent Form 5500 filing. As of Dec. 31, 2022, the plan had nearly $21 million in assets, the filing showed.
As of Oct. 27, the PBGC had approved about $53.5 billion in special financial assistance to plans covering more than 771,000 workers, retirees and beneficiaries, the news release stated.
