Apply for Your Pension Benefits

Things to remember about applying for benefits:

• You can apply for a pension if:
  
  • you are now eligible or will be eligible within the next 180 days to receive benefits from PBGC, under the provisions of your pension plan; and
  • you would like to begin receiving your retirement benefit within the next 180 days.

• Before you apply for your benefit, you must request an estimate of your benefit amount. The estimate will tell you how much your benefit would be under each possible form of benefit available to you on the date you want your benefits to start. 
• PBGC will contact you if you are missing any "proof documents" (e.g., a birth certificate) that are required to complete your application.
• You will start to receive payments about three months after you contact PBGC about your pension benefits. For example, if you contact us during January, the soonest your benefit can start is April 1.
• Note: if you are a beneficiary of a deceased participant, more information is available on Beneficiaries and Reporting the Death of a Participant.

How to apply:

• Use our online service to apply.

  OR

• Call PBGC's Customer Contact Center to request an application for pension benefits.
  
  • Call at 1-800-400-7242. For TTY/ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) users, call the federal relay service toll-free at 1-800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to the number above.
  • Remember to have your Social Security or customer ID number, plan name, and case number ready for the customer service representative so that they are better able to help you.