The Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (CSPF) was established in 1955 to provide pension benefits to trucking industry workers, and is one of the largest multiemployer plans. According to its regulatory filings, CSPF had less than half the estimated funds needed to cover plan liabilities in 1982 at the time it entered into a court-enforceable consent decree that provides fo...

The Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (CSPF) was established in 1955 to provide pension benefits to trucking industry workers and is one of the largest multiemployer plans. According to its regulatory filings, CSPF had less than half the estimated funds needed to cover plan liabilities in 1982 at the time it entered into a court-enforceable consent decree that provides for...

The U.S. retirement system, and the workers and retirees it was designed to help, face major challenges. Traditional pensions have become much less common, and individuals are increasingly responsible for planning and managing their own retirement savings accounts, such as 401(k) plans. Yet research shows that many households are ill-equipped for this task and have little or no retirement savings...

Older borrowers (age 50 and older) who default on federal student loans and must repay that debt with a portion of their Social Security benefits often have held their loans for decades and had about 15 percent of their benefit payment withheld. This withholding is called an offset. GAO's analysis of characteristics of student loan debt using data from the Departments of Education (Education), Tre...

People who invest their retirement accounts in unconventional assets—such as real estate or virtual currency—may be placing their savings at risk. Retirement accounts allowing such unconventional investments increase owners' responsibilities in ways they may not understand—and mistakes can trigger taxes and penalties. Moreover, account custodians may prematurely close an account or let valu...

In light of financial challenges facing Social Security's benefit programs, including the projected depletion of the Disability Insurance trust fund, GAO has updated and expanded on its 2005 guide on Social Security. This Guide was released on October 27, 2015. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 subsequently made a number of changes to Social Security’s programs, including moving the projected da...

We testified about our recent report on the perspectives of women retirees on their financial security. We held 14 focus groups across the country. Every group was concerned about rising health care costs and each group discussed how a lack of personal finance education hurt their retirement security. Women in all groups also equated financial security in retirement with being able to maintain the...

Many Americans don't have enough savings for a secure retirement—and divorce can make it worse if one spouse can't claim some of the other spouse's retirement benefits. A legal tool called a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (known as a "QDRO") can be used to establish such a claim. Getting an order can be complex and costly. Many aren't approved—largely because the submitted orders lack basi...

The Federal Employees' Compensation Act program pays for wages lost due to injury. Employees with lasting disabilities may choose federal retirement benefits when eligible, instead of FECA. However, they may not be aware of their options. We analyzed how income from FECA would compare with federal retirement income for those without disabling injuries. We found, for example, that FECA may be lower...

We held 14 focus groups with women retirees across the United States to get their perspectives on financial security. Every group was concerned about rising health care costs and each group discussed how a lack of personal finance education had a negative effect on their retirement security. Women in all groups also equated financial security in retirement with being able to maintain their indepen...

Federal retirement programs often have Cost-of-Living-Adjustments (COLAs) to ensure benefits keep pace with inflation. This includes Social Security for more than 60 million older Americans, workers with disabilities, and their families. These COLAs are typically based on consumer price indexes for certain groups of Americans. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces these indexes, but it ha...

Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help improve the federal government. We alert department heads to the recommendations where they can save the most money, address issues on our High Risk List, or significantly improve government operations. This report outlines our 7 priority open recommendations for the Department of Labor as of April 2020. For example, we recommended that L...

Executive retirement plans allow some executives to defer their pay and related income taxes to future years. We looked at these plans and found: Benefits for executives—e.g., no limits on how much pay can be deferred Risks for executives—if companies go bankrupt, they may not receive deferred pay Little oversight information—oversight agencies don’t have much data on who’s participat...

Income and wealth inequality in the United States have increased over the last several decades. We looked at whether these trends continue for older Americans as they age. We compared income and wealth for all older households from 1989 through 2016 and found households in the top 20% saw disproportionately greater gains than other households. We also looked at income and wealth for a group of o...

Retirees and workers' pension benefits often depend on the financial well-being of their employers. Corporate restructurings (such as mergers and acquisitions or bankruptcy restructuring) can result in changes to retirement benefit plans. We examined trends in corporate restructuring since 1999 and their implications for pension benefits. We found that mergers and acquisitions comprised the larg...

Every year, we identify and report on federal agencies, programs, and initiatives with fragmented, overlapping, or duplicative goals or activities; and ways to reduce costs or enhance revenue. In our 9th annual report, we identify 98 new actions that Congress and executive branch agencies could take to improve operations across government. For example, better oversight of Medicaid spending could...