Activities

To fulfill the Peace Corps mandate, men and women are trained for a 9- to 14week period in the appropriate local language, the technical skills necessary for their particular job, and the crosscultural skills needed to adjust to a society with traditions and attitudes different from their own. Volunteers serve for a period of 2 years, living among the people with whom they work. Volunteers are expected to become a part of the community through their voluntary service.

Thousands of volunteers serve throughout Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the Baltics, and Central Asia. They work in six program areas, including: education, agriculture, health, small business development, urban development, and the environment. Community-level projects are designed to incorporate the skills of volunteers with the resources of host-country agencies and other international assistance organizations to help solve specific development problems, often in

conjunction with private volunteer organizations.

In the United States, the Peace Corps is working to promote an understanding of people in other countries. Through its World Wise Schools Program, volunteers are matched with elementary and junior high schools in the United States to encourage an exchange of letters, pictures, music, and artifacts. Participating students increase their knowledge of geography, languages, and different cultures, while gaining an appreciation for voluntarism.

The Peace Corps offers other domestic programs involving former volunteers, universities, local public school systems, and private businesses and foundations in a partnership to help solve some of the United States most pressing domestic problems.

The Peace Corps Office of Private Sector Relations works with schools, civic groups, businesses, and neighborhood and youth organizations in the United States to facilitate their support of Peace Corps initiatives here and abroad.

Office

Address

Telephone

404-331-2932

617-565-5555

312-353-4990

214-767-5435

303-866-1057

Sources of Information

Becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer

Contact the nearest area office. Phone, 800-424-8580, extension 2293 (toll

free).

Employment Contact the Peace Corps, Office of Human Resource Management, Washington, DC 20526. Phone, 202606-3950. For recorded employment opportunities, call 202-606-3214.

310-235-7444

612-348-1480

212-466-2477

703-235-9191

415-744-2677

206-553-5490

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is a self-financing, wholly owned Government corporation subject to the Government Corporation Control Act (31 U.S.C. 9101-9109). The Corporation, established by Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 13011461), is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and the Treasury. The Secretary of Labor is Chairman of the Board. A seven-member Advisory Committee, composed of two labor, two business, and three public members appointed by the President, advises the agency on various matters.

Activities

Coverage The Corporation insures most private-sector defined benefit pension plans that provide a pension benefit based on factors such as age, years of service, and salary.

The Corporation administers two insurance programs separately covering single-employer and multiemployer plans. More than 42 million workers participate in approximately 55,000 covered plans.

Single-Employer Insurance Under the single-employer program, the Corporation guarantees payment of certain pension benefits if an insured plan terminates without sufficient assets to pay those benefits. However, the law limits the total monthly benefit that the agency may guarantee for one individual to $2,642.05 per month, at age 65, for a plan terminating during 1995, and sets other restrictions on PBGC's guarantee. The Corporation may also pay some benefits above the guaranteed amount depending on amounts recovered from the employer responsible for the plan.

A plan administrator may terminate a single-employer plan in a "standard" or "distress" termination if certain procedural and legal requirements are met. In either termination, the plan

administrator must inform participants in writing at least 60 days prior to the date the administrator proposes to terminate the plan. Only a plan which has sufficient assets to pay all benefit liabilities may terminate in a standard termination. The Corporation also may institute termination proceedings in certain specified circumstances. Multiemployer Insurance Under title IV, as originally enacted, the Corporation guaranteed nonforfeitable benefits for multiemployer plans in a similar fashion. as for single-employer plans. However, the multiemployer program was revised in 1980 by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (29 U.S.C. 1001 note) which changed the insurable event from plan termination to plan insolvency. The Corporation now provides financial assistance to plans that are unable to pay nonforfeitable benefits. The plans are obligated to repay such assistance. The act also made employers withdrawing from a plan liable to the plan for a portion of its unfunded vested benefits. Premium Collections All defined benefit pension plans insured by PBGC are required to pay premiums to the Corporation according to rates set by Congress. The annual premium per plan participant for multiemployer pension plans is $2.60 for plan years beginning after September 26, 1988. The basic premium for all single-employer plans is $19 per participant per year.

Underfunded single-employer plans must also pay an additional premium equal to $9 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits, subject to a cap that will be phased out by the end of 1997.

Sources of Information

The Pension Benefit Guarantee

Corporation provides information electronically through the Internet, at http://www.pbgc.gov/.