The five applications are the latest in a string of troubling news for those who planned their retirements around the pensions promised to them by unions. Many labor funds, already on shaky ground following the financial crash, have been threatened by the bankruptcy of companies that previously contributed to the plans, as well as an aging workforce that has led in some cases to retirees outnumbering union members.
In February, Teamsters Local announced that its pensions accounts had run dry. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation PBGC , an independent federal agency funded by contributions from pension funds, took over responsibility for the payments given to 4, members. It slashed benefits by more than 60 percent.
The PBGC, however, is on equally shaky ground as more and more private sector and union retirement funds file for relief. To avoid draining the PBGC, the federal government adopted legislation in that allow multi-employer pension plans to cut benefits, which were previously treated as earned compensation that could not be taken away. Those cuts could only be implemented with approval from the Treasury Department. Numerous labor organizations have applied for relief although most applications are rejected or withdrawn.
In January, the Treasury Department approved drastic cuts to the Ironworkers Local 17 pension fund that devastated retirees. Only those who retired for disability reasons or those over 80 were spared cuts. Dan Wargo began working as an ironworker in and retired 10 years ago. He said that the plan's funding pitted younger workers against older retirees. There are other ways this could have been mended instead of singling out a group of people.
In the United States, the Social Security system is similar in function to a defined benefit pension arrangement, albeit one that is constructed differently from a pension offered by a private employer; however, Social Security is distinct in that there is no legally guaranteed level of benefits derived from the amount paid into the program. Individuals that have worked in the UK and have paid certain levels of national insurance deductions can expect an income from the state pension scheme after their normal retirement.
The state pension is currently divided into two parts: Individuals will qualify for the basic state pension if they have completed sufficient years contribution to their national insurance record. The S2P pension scheme is earnings related and depends on earnings in each year as to how much an individual can expect to receive. It is possible for an individual to forgo the S2P payment from the state, in lieu of a payment made to an appropriate pension scheme of their choice, during their working life.
For more details see UK pension provision. In a defined contribution plan, contributions are paid into an individual account for each member. The contributions are invested, for example in the stock market, and the returns on the investment which may be positive or negative are credited to the individual's account. On retirement, the member's account is used to provide retirement benefits, sometimes through the purchase of an annuity which then provides a regular income.
Defined contribution plans have become widespread all over the world in recent years, and are now the dominant form of plan in the private sector in many countries. For example, the number of defined benefit plans in the US has been steadily declining, as more and more employers see pension contributions as a large expense avoidable by disbanding the defined benefit plan and instead offering a defined contribution plan.
Money contributed can either be from employee salary deferral or from employer contributions. The portability of defined contribution pensions is legally no different from the portability of defined benefit plans. However, because of the cost of administration and ease of determining the plan sponsor's liability for defined contribution plans you do not need to pay an actuary to calculate the lump sum equivalent that you do for defined benefit plans in practice, defined contribution plans have become generally portable. In the United Kingdom, for instance, it is a legal requirement to use the bulk of the fund to purchase an annuity.
The "cost" of a defined contribution plan is readily calculated, but the benefit from a defined contribution plan depends upon the account balance at the time an employee is looking to use the assets. So, for this arrangement, the contribution is known but the benefit is unknown until calculated. Despite the fact that the participant in a defined contribution plan typically has control over investment decisions, the plan sponsor retains a significant degree of fiduciary responsibility over investment of plan assets, including the selection of investment options and administrative providers.
A defined contribution plan typically involves a number of service providers, including in many cases:. In the United States, the legal definition of a defined contribution plan is a plan providing for an individual account for each participant, and for benefits based solely on the amount contributed to the account, plus or minus income, gains, expenses and losses allocated to the account see 26 U.
Examples of defined contribution plans in the United States include individual retirement accounts IRAs and k plans. In such plans, the employee is responsible, to one degree or another, for selecting the types of investments toward which the funds in the retirement plan are allocated. This may range from choosing one of a small number of pre-determined mutual funds to selecting individual stocks or other securities.
Most self-directed retirement plans are characterized by certain tax advantages , and some provide for a portion of the employee's contributions to be matched by the employer.
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In exchange, the funds in such plans may not be withdrawn by the investor prior to reaching a certain age—typically the year the employee reaches In the US, defined contribution plans are subject to IRS limits on how much can be contributed, known as the section limit. These numbers usually increase each year and are indexed to compensate for the effects of inflation. Hybrid plan designs combine the features of defined benefit and defined contribution plan designs. A cash balance plan is a defined benefit plan made to appear as if it were a defined contribution plan.
They have notional balances in hypothetical accounts where, typically, each year the plan administrator will contribute an amount equal to a certain percentage of each participant's salary; a second contribution, called interest credit , is made as well. These are not actual contributions and further discussion is beyond the scope of this entry suffice it to say that there is currently much controversy.
In general, they are usually treated as defined benefit plans for tax, accounting and regulatory purposes. As with defined benefit plans, investment risk in hybrid designs is largely borne by the plan sponsor. As with defined contribution designs, plan benefits are expressed in the terms of a notional account balance, and are usually paid as cash balances upon termination of employment. These features make them more portable than traditional defined benefit plans and perhaps more attractive to a more highly mobile workforce. Target benefit plans are defined contribution plans made to match or resemble defined benefit plans.
Advocates of defined contribution plans point out that each employee has the ability to tailor the investment portfolio to his or her individual needs and financial situation, including the choice of how much to contribute, if anything at all. However, others state that these apparent advantages could also hinder some workers who might not possess the financial savvy to choose the correct investment vehicles or have the discipline to voluntarily contribute money to retirement accounts.
This debate parallels the discussion currently going on in the U. Defined contribution pensions, by definition, are funded, as the "guarantee" made to employees is that specified defined contributions will be made during an individual's working life. There are many ways to finance a pension and save for retirement. Pension plans can be set up by an employer, matching a monetary contribution each month, by the state or personally through a pension scheme with a financial institution, such as a bank or brokerage firm.
Pension plans often come with a tax break depending on the country and plan type.
This plan allows contributions to this account to be marked as un-taxable income and remain un-taxed until withdrawal. Most countries' governments will provide advice on pension schemes. Widows' funds were among the first pension type arrangement to appear, for example Duke Ernest the Pious of Gotha in Germany, founded a widows' fund for clergy in and another for teachers in It is sometimes claimed that at the time life expectancy for the average Prussian was 45 years; in fact this figure ignores the very high infant mortality and high maternal death rate from childbirth of this era.
In fact, an adult entering into insurance under the scheme would on average live to 70 years of age, a figure used in the actuarial assumptions included in the legislation. There is a history of pensions in Ireland that can be traced back to Brehon Law imposing a legal responsibility on the kin group to take care of its members who were aged, blind, deaf, sick or insane. In , there were over 76, pension schemes operating in Ireland.
Today the Republic of Ireland has a two-tiered approach to the provision of pensions or retirement benefits. First, there is a state social welfare retirement pension, which promises a basic level of pension. Secondly, there are the occupational pension schemes and self-employed arrangements, which supplement the state pension.
Until the 20th century, poverty was seen as a quasi-criminal state, and this was reflected in the Vagabonds and Beggars Act that imprisoned beggars. During Elizabethan and Victorian times, English poor laws represented a shift whereby the poor were seen merely as morally degenerate, and were expected to perform forced labour in workhouses.
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It coincided with the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress and was the first step in the Liberal welfare reforms to the completion of a system of social security, with unemployment and health insurance through the National Insurance Act The National Assistance Act formally abolished the poor law, and gave a minimum income to those not paying national insurance. The early s established the existing framework for state pensions in the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act and Superannuation and other Funds Validation Act Following the highly respected Goode Report , occupational pensions were covered by comprehensive statutes in the Pension Schemes Act and the Pensions Act In the Pensions Commission was established as a cross party body to review pensions in the United Kingdom.
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The first Act to follow was the Pensions Act that updated regulation by replacing OPRA with the Pensions Regulator and relaxing the stringency of minimum funding requirements for pensions, while ensuring protection for insolvent businesses. In a major update of the state pension, the Pensions Act , which aligned and raised retirement ages. Following that, the Pensions Act has set up automatic enrolment for occupational pensions , and a public competitor designed to be a low-cost and efficient fund manager, called the National Employment Savings Trust or "Nest".
Public pensions got their start with various 'promises', informal and legislated, made to veterans of the Revolutionary War and, more extensively, the Civil War. They were expanded greatly, and began to be offered by a number of state and local governments during the early Progressive Era in the late nineteenth century. Pension plans became popular in the United States during World War II , when wage freezes prohibited outright increases in workers' pay.
The defined benefit plan had been the most popular and common type of retirement plan in the United States through the s; since that time, defined contribution plans have become the more common type of retirement plan in the United States and many other western countries. The plan experienced low investment returns and a benefit structure that had been increased without raises in funding.
A growing challenge for many nations is population ageing. As birth rates drop and life expectancy increases an ever-larger portion of the population is elderly.
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This leaves fewer workers for each retired person. In many developed countries this means that government and public sector pensions could potentially be a drag on their economies unless pension systems are reformed or taxes are increased. One method of reforming the pension system is to increase the retirement age.
Two exceptions are Australia and Canada , where the pension system is forecast to be solvent for the foreseeable future. These two nations also have an advantage from their relative openness to immigration: However, their populations are not growing as fast as the U. Thus, the population in the U. Another growing challenge is the recent trend of states and businesses in the United States purposely under-funding their pension schemes in order to push the costs onto the federal government.
For example, in , the majority of states have unfunded pension liabilities exceeding all reported state debt. Bradley Belt , former executive director of the PBGC the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation , the federal agency that insures private-sector defined-benefit pension plans in the event of bankruptcy , testified before a Congressional hearing in October , "I am particularly concerned with the temptation, and indeed, growing tendency, to use the pension insurance fund as a means to obtain an interest-free and risk-free loan to enable companies to restructure.
Unfortunately, the current calculation appears to be that shifting pension liabilities onto other premium payers or potentially taxpayers is the path of least resistance rather than a last resort. Challenges have further been increased by the post credit crunch. Some of the listed systems might also be considered social insurance. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the retirement income arrangement. For the type of lodging, see Pension lodging.
For the mortgage repayment scheme, see Mortgage loan.
20,000 Union Members, Retirees at Risk of Losing Pension Benefits
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This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. Pensions in the United Kingdom. Retrieved 11 October The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 April The Pensions Advisory Service. Qualified Domestic Relations Order Handbook.