PBGC Approves SFA Application for Bakery and Confectionery Union Pension Fund.
Bakery and Confectionery Pension Fund Averts Insolvency and Reduction of Benefits Through Receipt of Special Financial Assistance.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (STL.News) Bakery and Confectionery Union – The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced today that it has approved the application submitted to the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program by the Bakery and Confectionery Union and Industry International Pension Fund (Bakery and Confectionery Pension Fund). The plan, based in Kensington, Maryland, covers 103,056 participants in the bakery, confectionery, tobacco, and grain milling industries.
The Bakery and Confectionery Pension Fund will receive approximately $3.4 billion in special financial assistance, including interest, to the expected date of payment to the plan. The plan was projected to become insolvent and run out of money in 2030. Without the SFA Program, the Bakery and Confectionery Pension Fund would have been required to reduce participants’ benefits to the PBGC guarantee level upon plan insolvency, which means that their benefits would have been cut by roughly 45 percent below the amount payable under the terms of the plan. SFA will enable the plan to continue to pay retirement benefits without reduction for many years into the future.
“Today, the Biden-Harris administration kept our promise to America’s workers and retirees by taking action to protect the retirement security of 103,056 workers in the bakery, confectionery, tobacco, and grain milling industries,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie A. Su. “As part of the American Rescue Plan, Special Financial Assistance will ensure workers get the secure and dignified retirement they deserve as we grow our economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
