Pension Integration
How Large Defined Benefit Plans Coordinate Benefits With Social Security Gao ID: HRD-86-118BR July 21, 1986Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how often individuals' company pension benefits are coordinated with social security benefits, or integrated.
GAO found that: (1) changing integration rules could affect many workers and require many employers to modify plan provisions; (2) over 50 percent of large defined-benefit plans coordinate their benefits with social security benefits; and (3) over 50 percent of members of defined-benefit plans belonged to integrated plans. GAO also found that, of the large defined benefit plans, 34 percent used the offset method, 22 percent were step-rate plans, and 1 percent used the pure excess method.