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Despite a heavy and growing workload, PBGC continued
to provide high quality service to its customers as it
paid more than $3 billion in benefits during 2004 to more
than 518,000 people. At year-end, PBGC was responsible
for the pensions of more than 1 million people,
including 443,000 who will begin to receive benefits
from PBGC when they retire in the future and 100,000
who are receiving or will receive benefits through
PBGC's financial assistance to multiemployer plans.
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PBGC kept pace with its increasing workload by issuing
a record 137,000 final benefit determinations during the
year, exceeding the previous record set just one year earlier
by nearly 50 percent. Final benefit determinations
issued during the year exceeded the annual targets for
accuracy, as only 2 percent had errors and 99.7 percent
were issued with less than a 5 percent difference between
the original estimate and the final benefit amount.
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PBGC introduced electronic services for its customers,
with separate online facilities for plan participants and
plan administrators. Internet-based electronic business
transactions are now available around-the-clock for
PBGC customers.
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Through litigation and negotiation, PBGC secured legal
decisions and financial settlements that protected plan
participants and the insurance program from millions of
dollars in unnecessary losses.
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PBGC's performance management and strategic planning
received high marks in the Corporation's first
Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) review by the
Office of Management and Budget.
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PBGC unveiled a new Spanish-language section on its
Web site to improve service to its growing population of
Spanish-speaking customers.
Financials
Table - Highlights
Perspectives on the Year
PBGC's annual benefit payments continued to rise, exceeding $3 billion for the first time as the number of people receiving monthly payments passed 500,000.
![Graph of Annual Benefit Payments. This line graph shows the increase in PBGC's annual benefit payments between 1995 and 2004, with payments rising gradually from a total of about $760 million in 1995 to about $1 billion in 2001 and then increasing steeply to more than $3 billion in 2004.](http://www.pbgc.gov/images/spacer.gif)
Total premium revenues increased to $1.5 billion, reflecting increases in the amount of variable-rate premiums paid by underfunded plans.
![Graph of Total Premium Revenue. This line graph shows the fluctuation in PBGC's annual premium revenues between 1995 and 2004, from about $860 billion in 1995, followed by a steep rise in revenues to about $1.2 billion in 1996 and then a gradual decline to about $810 million in 2002. Premium revenues then rose steeply to about $1.5 billion in 2004.](http://www.pbgc.gov/images/spacer.gif)
PBGC took responsibility for the benefits for 147,500 new participants during the year, well above historical norms.
![Graph of New Participants in Trusteed Plans. This bar graph shows the change in the annual number of participants in newly trusteed plans for which PBGC has taken responsibility during the period from 1995 to 2004. Between 1995 and 2000, PBGC generally took responsibility for the benefits of fewer than 50,000 participants per year. Beginning in 2001, the number of new participants taken in annually increased sharply, rising to a high of 206,000 in 2003 before declining to 147,500 in 2004.](http://www.pbgc.gov/images/spacer.gif)
PBGC issued almost 50 percent more final benefit determinations in 2004 than in any prior year.
![Graph of Benefit Determinations Issued. This line graph shows the increase in final benefit determinations issued annually by PBGC during the period from 1995 to 2004. From 1995 to 2000, PBGC issued between 60,000 and 70,000 benefit determinations annually. Beginning in 2000, the number of benefit determinations issued annually increased sharply, with a record number of 137,000 determinations issued in 2004.](http://www.pbgc.gov/images/spacer.gif)
About 1,189 standard terminations were submitted to PBGC during 2004, slightly more than last year and the first increase in 14 years.
![Graph of Standard Terminations. This line graphs shows the steady decline in the annual number of standard terminations of fully funded defined benefit pension plans insured by PBGC between 1995 and 2004, beginning with about 3,900 standard terminations filed in 1995. The number of standard terminations declined thereafter to a low of 1,119 in 2003 before increasing slightly to 1,189 in 2004.](http://www.pbgc.gov/images/spacer.gif)
While the number of PBGC-insured plans continued a slow decline, the number of covered participants increased slightly from 44.1 million to 44.4 million.
![Graph of PBGC-Insured Plans and Participants. This combination bar and line graph shows the increase in the number of PBGC-insured participants during the period from 1985 to 2004 and the declining number of insured defined benefit plans during the same period. In 1985, PBGC insured about 115,000 plans and 40 million participants. By 2004, the number of insured plans had fallen to 31,200 while the number of insured participants had risen to about 44.4 million.](http://www.pbgc.gov/images/spacer.gif)
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