Posts tagged Full Death Master File
Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member Cassidy Introduce Bill Recouping Pension Bailout Sent for Dead People, Increasing Oversight of Pension System
January 31, 2024 // In November, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a report disclosing that the PBGC overpaid the Central States fund by $127 million after the plan included at least 3,479 dead participants in its bailout request. According to the PBGC OIG, the PBGC’s review process did not require cross-checking the plan participant list with the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Full Death Master File (Full DMF), despite this practice being recommended as a standard procedure by the OIG. As far back as 2018, the OIG instructed PBGC that using the Full DMF is not only crucial, but essential, to prevent overpayments of annuities to people who are already dead. Under questioning from Sen. Cassidy, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who represents nearly 350,000 Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (Central States Pension Fund) retiree participants, stated that the fund should return $127 million in taxpayer dollars that were wrongfully paid to it. However, the PBGC has indicated it does not intend to recoup this money, even though it has the legal authority to claw back wrongfully obtained funds. Further, the Central States Pension Fund has not returned the overpayment of taxpayer funds and is treating them as a fund asset. We still do not know how much the PBGC has overpaid for ghost annuities in total to all multiemployer pension plans.