The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) reports that in 2021, not only did the financial condition of its single-employer program continue to improve, but its multiemployer program has improved dramatically in what the agency calls “a sharp contrast” to its condition just one year ago.
So dramatic is the reversal of fortunes of the multiemployer program that the PBGC says of it that while at the end of fiscal year 2020 it had a “deep deficit,” just one year later the opposite is the case—and likely to remain so for decades. In his message accompanying the report, PBGC Director Gordon Hartogensis remarked: “For the first time in almost twenty years, both PBGC’s Multiemployer Program and Single-Employer Program have a positive net position at fiscal year-end.”
The data comes in the PBGC’s annual report for fiscal year (FY) 2021, released on Nov. 16.
Single-Employer Program
The improvement of single-employer program in FY 2021 was even stronger than that of FY 2020. Not only did it gain assets, its liabilities fell and reached almost the level of 2019. Its net positive balance almost doubled in size in just one year.
More specifically, the single-employer program financial position is as follows:
Single-Employer Program Assets and Liabilities, 2019-2021
| Fiscal Year | Assets | Change from Previous Year | Liabilities | Change from Previous Year | Net | Change from Previous Year |
| 2019 | $128.1 billion | -- | $119.4 billion | -- | $8.7 billion | -- |
| 2020 | $143.5 billion | +$15.4 billion | $128.0 billion |
+$8.6 billion | $15.5 billion | +6.8 billion |
| 2021 | $150.7 billion | +$7.2 billion | $119.8 billion | -$8.2 billion | $30.9 billion | +15.4 billion |
And this despite the fact that during FY 2021, the PBGC reports that it paid more in benefits than it did in FY 2020.
| Fiscal Year | Benefits Paid to Beneficiaries in Terminated Single-Employer Plans | Change Since Previous Year | Beneficiaries | Change Since Previous Year |
| 2020 | $6.1 billion | -- | 984,000 | -- |
| 2021 | $6.4 billion | +$300 million | 970,000 | -14,000 |
| Year | Single-Employer Plans for Which the PBGC Assumed Responsibility | Change Since Previous Year | Workers in PBGC-Assumed Plans | Change Since Previous Year |
| 2020 | 69 | -- | 56,405 | -- |
| 2021 | 47 | -22 | 34,000 | -22,405 |
Multiemployer Program
One year ago, the PBGC said that its multiemployer program remained “severely underfunded” and was expected to run out of money in FY 2026. Now, says the PBGC, the multiemployer program is “likely to remain solvent for more than 30 years.” The agency attributes the turnaround to “a significant reduction in program liabilities due to the ‘unbooking’ of the liability for plans that were expected to fail and call on PBGC for assistance in the next decade.” And the catalyst for the reversal, it says, is the enactment of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP). “ARP’s Special Financial Assistance Program will significantly extend the solvency of the Multiemployer Program by at least thirty years,” says the PBGC, characterizing the effect of the ARP as “a financial lifeline.”
Following are specifics of its condition:
Multiemployer Program Deficit, 2017-2021
| Year | Deficit | Change in Deficit from Previous Year |
| 2017 | $65.1 billion | -- |
| 2018 | $53.9 billion | -$11.2 billion |
| 2019 | $65.2 billion | +$11.3 billion |
| 2020 | $63.7 billion | -$1.5 billion |
| 2021 | Net surplus of $481 million | -$64.2 billion |
And this turnaround is all the more dramatic since the PBGC paid more in benefits through the multiemployer program in FY 2021 than it did in FY 2020.
Multiemployer Program Benefits, 2017-2021
| Year | Assistance Paid | Change in Assistance Paid from Previous Year | Multiemployer Plans Helped | Change in Plans Helped from Previous Year |
| 2017 | $141 million | -- | 72 | -- |
| 2018 | $153 million | +$12 million | 81 | +9 |
| 2019 | $160 million | +$7 million | 89 | +8 |
| 2020 | $173 million | +$13 million | 95 | +6 |
| 2021 | $230 million | +$57 million | 109 | +14 |
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