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Background
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a federal government agency that protects the pension benefits of nearly 44 million American workers and retirees in more than 29,000 private sector defined benefit pension plans under the terms of Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1301-1461.
Eligible Service Population
Of these three groups, only pension plan participants face barriers because of their limited English proficiency; premium payers and pension practitioners are not generally LEP persons.
Number or Proportion of LEP Individuals
Across all pension plans, Spanish-speaking LEP persons are about 10% of PBGC's eligible service population. In a particular
plan, Spanish-speaking LEP persons may be as numerous as 100% of the plan's population. Occasionally, we are contacted by
LEP persons who speak languages other than Spanish.
Frequency of Contact with the Program
PBGC's eligible service population does not have constant contact with PBGC's program. Rather, the contact occurs because
of specific events such as a plan's termination and trusteeship, or the participant's application for retirement benefits.
Nature and Importance of the Program
The guaranteed pension benefits that PBGC pays to our eligible service population are typically a significant portion of their
retirement income. Thus, access to our insurance program is very important to most of our population, and inaccessibility
could cause severe hardship both immediately and in the long-term.
Resources Available
PBGC has the resources necessary to give its eligible service population meaningful access to its programs.
Current Access: The following services are now available in Spanish:
Future Access: The following services will be available in Spanish:
The following service will be available for languages other than Spanish: