07/31/23

What is Recoupment?

I received a letter from my pension plan stating that it has been overpaying me. The letter says that the plan is going to reduce my monthly payments and that I will also have to pay an additional amount to the plan. What can I do? In recent years, the Pension Rights Center has seen […]


11/10/16

“Composite Bill” Legislative Summary

The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions recently held a hearing on a “Discussion Draft to Modernize Multiemployer Pensions.”  The draft is commonly referred to as “the composite bill” even though it has not yet been introduced into Congress as a stand-alone piece of legislation. However, the legislative language has […]


06/03/16

Resources for Participants in Multiemployer Pension Plans in “Critical and Declining” Status

The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) allows severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans that are in “critical and declining” status to seek Treasury Department approval to cut pension benefits. Retirees worried about future pension cuts have asked us what they can do to protect their pensions. This fact sheet suggests steps they can take […]


02/09/16

Pension plans that have applied to cut benefits under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act

The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) gives the trustees of certain underfunded multiemployer plans that meet the definition of being in “critical and declining” status almost unprecedented authority to cut retiree pension benefits. The law requires, however, that before an eligible plan cuts benefits, it must first file an application with the U.S. […]


11/03/15

Resources for Central States Pension Fund Retirees

This page is intended to serve as a resource hub for retirees who are subject to cuts as a result of the Central States Pension Fund’s application to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to reduce retiree benefits. This page will be updated on an ongoing basis. On May 6, 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department […]


10/30/15

The Pension Accountability Act

In the last days of 2014, Congress passed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) as part of a year-end budget compromise. As a result of MPRA’s enactment, for the first time in 40 years multiemployer pension plan trustees have been given the authority to cut already earned retiree pension benefits while a plan […]


07/20/15

Multiemployer pension plans projected to be in “critical and declining” status

The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 allows the trustees of certain multiemployer pension plans to reduce pensions, including the benefits of retirees. Read a summary of the cutback provisions of the law here. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has compiled a list of 100 plans that may be permitted to cut benefits […]


06/30/15

How the Keep Our Pension Promises Act Would Save the Central States Pension Fund

The Keep Our Pension Promises Act would make it possible for the largest of the severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans, the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF), to continue to pay promised benefits to its 205,000 retirees. This is because money that would be transferred by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to the plan each […]


06/29/15

Keep Our Pension Promises Act of 2015

The Keep Our Pension Promises Act of 2015 repeals the “benefit suspension” provisions of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) enacted at the end of the last Congress. Those provisions allow the trustees of certain financially-troubled multiemployer pension plans to reduce the benefits of retirees and their widows and widowers. The Keep Our […]


06/18/15

Why the Keep Our Pension Promises Act Must Be Passed

Updated: September 9, 2015 On June 18, 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) introduced the Keep Our Pension Promises Act of 2015 into the U.S. Congress to stop benefit cutbacks for retirees in certain underfunded multiemployer plans. These cuts were authorized by the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. In the Senate, […]


05/28/15

Summary of the pension cutback provisions in the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014

In December 2014, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the 2015 Omnibus spending bill, which included provisions of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 that allow trustees of certain multiemployer plans to cut retirees’ pensions. Below is a summary of these provisions. Related: Read our fact sheet on multiemployer plan funding. See a […]


10/01/14

Facts About Multiemployer Pension Plan Funding

This fact sheet explains funding issues in multiemployer pension plans and how the guarantee limits set by the Pension Benefity Guaranty Corporation could impact your multiemployer plan pension. Related: Read our summary of the pension cutback provisions (part of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014) that were included in the 2014 Omnibus spending law. See a list of […]