The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
Summary
PBGC insures the pensions of about 29.5 million American workers and retirees in private-sector plans. Self-financed by law through premiums, not general tax revenue, it cost about $512.9 million and 970 employees to run in FY2025 -- roughly $17.39 per person it protects.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
In FY2025, PBGC paid over $6.4 billion in benefits to 926,000 participants⧉ in pension plans it had already taken over, and provided $168.5 million in traditional financial assistance to 100 insolvent multiemployer plans⧉ covering 60,244 retirees. Under the 2021 American Rescue Plan's Special Financial Assistance program it also disbursed $6.2 billion⧉ to shore up troubled union pension plans. In all, it insures pensions in about 22,200 single-employer and 1,305 multiemployer plans⧉, covering roughly 29.5 million American workers and retirees.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
PBGC's FY2025 total funding across its three strategic-goal areas⧉ -- pension-insurance oversight, benefit and plan-termination administration, and operational support -- was $512.9 million, funding 970 full-time employees. Against the roughly 29.5 million participants it protects, that works out to about $17.39 per participant, paid for by employer and plan premiums set by statute⧉, not general tax dollars.
View data as table
| Pension Plan Termination | 203.4 | benefit processing and payments, 323 FTE |
|---|---|---|
| Operational Support | 202.8 | IT, finance, HR, legal, 420 FTE |
| Pension Insurance | 106.7 | monitoring, SFA, projections, 227 FTE |
Why is it good for society?
Before the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021⧉ created the Special Financial Assistance program, PBGC's own FY2024 report noted⧉ its Multiemployer Program was projected to run out of money by 2026 -- a shortfall that would have left roughly 11 million union-plan workers and retirees with only whatever a collapsing insurance fund could still pay. Instead, both programs posted positive net financial positions⧉ at the end of FY2025 -- $62.2 billion for Single-Employer, $2.6 billion for Multiemployer -- meaning PBGC can keep paying guaranteed benefits, up to statutory limits, when a private pension plan collapses.
- PBGC is required by law to run on a self-financing basis -- the $512.9 million it costs to run comes from pension-plan premiums and sponsor recoveries, not general tax revenue -- this entry is about the insurer's own operating budget, not the value of the pensions it guarantees.
- PBGC's own caught deceased participants counted in Special Financial Assistance calculations across 64 plans; by the end of FY2025 that finding had returned $261.9 million to the Treasury ($142.4M in / settlements plus $119.5M in plan repayments).
Your handles.* If a pension plan you were part of ended, search PBGC's unclaimed-benefits database⧉ with your last name and the last four digits of your Social Security number. For a dispute PBGC hasn't resolved, the Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate⧉ can help -- advocate@pbgc.gov or (202) 229-4448. For general participant questions, call 1-800-400-7242⧉.
Sources(6) ▾
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), FY 2025 Annual Report (2026-01-27) — PBGC's own statutorily required annual report (Annual Performance Report + audited financial statements) for fiscal year 2025, released January 27, 2026 (press release pr26-002). Source for this entry's identity/mission language, FY2025 workload figures, program net positions, self-financing statement, and Board of Directors. Not yet indexed in Artemis; archive.org's Save Page Now service was returning 520 errors at capture time (one probe made, then skipped per this newsroom's known-outage protocol), but a prior third-party Wayback snapshot from 2026-06-22 was already available and is used as the capture link. pbgc.gov · original document
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), FY 2024 Annual Report (2025-01-01) — PBGC's prior-year (FY2024) annual report. Used only for its dated, historical statement that the Multiemployer Program was projected to become insolvent in 2026 before the American Rescue Plan Act's Special Financial Assistance program -- the sourced counterfactual for this entry's mechanism section. All headline budget/people/workload figures in this entry come from the FY2025 documents, not this one, to avoid mixing fiscal-year baselines. pbgc.gov · original document
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), FY 2025 - FY 2026 Annual Performance Plan (2025-06-01) — PBGC's own performance-plan document (the budget-and-performance companion to the Department of Labor's Congressional Budget Justification, which returned HTTP 403 to automated fetches at capture time -- a known hazard for dol.gov). Its three per-goal 'Performance Area' tables give this entry's FY2025 Total Funding and Total figures by strategic goal (Pension Insurance, Pension Plan Termination, Operational Support), which this entry sums to the $512.9 million / 970 agency-wide totals. Not yet indexed in Artemis; one Wayback Save Page Now attempt returned no snapshot (archive.org's SPN service was returning 520 errors at capture time, a known outage), and no prior snapshot existed via the availability API either -- archiveUrl recorded as null, non-blocking, per this newsroom's known-outage protocol. pbgc.gov · original document
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Find unclaimed retirement benefits (2026-05-11) — PBGC's own searchable database of unclaimed pension benefits (Missing Participants Program), updated quarterly (most recent update noted on the page as May 11, 2026). Cited as this entry's first 'Your handles' link. pbgc.gov · original document
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), PBGC Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate (2026-06-16) — PBGC's own page for its statutory ombudsman office, the Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate, selected by PBGC's Board of Directors. Cited as this entry's second 'Your handles' link. pbgc.gov · original document
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Contact us (2026-07-16) — PBGC's own contact page, giving the participant customer-service line (1-800-400-7242) and the agency's current street address (445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC), effective since an August 2022 relocation confirmed in the Federal Register. Used for this entry's geo pin (obvious-location doctrine) and its third 'Your handles' link. No Wayback snapshot available via the availability API at capture time; archiveUrl recorded as null, non-blocking. pbgc.gov · original document
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation was created by Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974⧉ (ERISA), a wholly-owned federal corporation whose Board of Directors⧉ is the Secretary of Labor (chair), the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of Commerce. Under ERISA Section 4002(a)⧉, PBGC exists to encourage private pension plans to keep running, pay benefits without interruption when one fails, and hold its premiums to the lowest level consistent with that guarantee. By law it operates on a self-financing basis, funded by premiums rather than general tax revenue⧉.