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

• Pension Plan Participants - about 44 million
• Premium Payers (PBGC-insured pension plans) - about 29,000
• Pension Practitioners (attorneys, accountants, actuaries)

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:

• PBGC's Customer Service Center (1-800-400-7242) has a recorded message in Spanish and gives the caller the option of speaking with a Spanish-speaking representative, along with IVR options to answer standard questions;
• All form letters discussing a participant's guaranteed benefit have been translated into Spanish and all forms used for benefit administration have been translated into Spanish;
• Participant Town Hall meetings, normally held after the plan's termination and trusteeship, are conducted in Spanish if required;
• All PBGC's brochures are published in Spanish;
• PBGC's Benefits Administration and Payment Department has a Foreign Language Unit to coordinate the delivery of services in Spanish;
• PBGC's Appeals Board can accept and docket timely appeals received in Spanish and can translate Appeals Board decisions (always in English) to Spanish upon request.

Future Access: The following services will be available in Spanish:

• Brochures and other general information on our web site;
• Customer Service Center letters confirming a participant's request, for example, to change the participant's address;
• A notice in the semiannual and annual participant newsletters saying the newsletter is also available in Spanish.

The following service will be available for languages other than Spanish: