PBGC Approves $182 Million for Southwest Ohio Carpenters Plan
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced the approval of an April 2019 application for Special Financial Assistance for the Southwest Ohio Carpenters Pension Plan covering 5,399 participants. The Southwest Ohio Plan will receive $182.6 million in Special Financial Assistance, including interest to the expected date of payment to the plan.
SWACCA helped to include the Special Financial Assistance program in the American Rescue Plan Act at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and was actively engaged in the deliberations over the regulations that implemented the program.
Southwest Ohio Carpenters Plan Will Restore Benefits Through Receipt of Special Financial Assistance
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced today that it has approved the application submitted to the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program by the Southwest Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters Pension Plan (Southwest Ohio Carpenters Plan). The plan, based in Monroe, Ohio, covers 5,399 participants in the construction industry.
On April 1, 2019, the Southwest Ohio Carpenters Plan implemented a benefit suspension under the terms of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) in order to address the plan’s troubled financial condition at that time and its projected insolvency. The plan reduced benefits of about 4,300 plan participants. On average, affected participants’ benefits were reduced by 18 percent.
PBGC’s approval of the SFA application enables the plan to restore benefits suspended under the terms of MPRA and to make payments to retirees to cover prior benefit suspensions. SFA will enable the plan to pay retirement benefits without reduction for many years into the future. The plan will receive $182.6 million in SFA, including interest to the expected date of payment to the plan.