WASHINGTON, June 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. agency that guarantees private pensions says loopholes in the federal pension law let United Airlines treat its pension fund as solid for years.
That finding will be presented Tuesday to a Senate panel, investigating growing concerns that the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will one day require a bailout because it has been forced to pick up a number of large failed private pension plans, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
One of those loopholes concerns radically different filing requirement by government agencies, the PBGC said.
United, in full compliance with legally required Labor Department filings, made no pension contributions in 2002. Two years later it filed for bankruptcy and disclosed that it owed its pension fund more than $70 million.
However, if the UAL Corp. unit had had to calculate pension contributions using Securities and Exchange Commission rules, it would have paid into its pension in 2002.
