The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced that it recovered $2.4 billion after Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) investigations in fiscal year 2021.

The EBSA closed 1,072 civil investigations, with 741 resulting in monetary results or corrective actions, a DOL release said. The outcome meant that 16,024 terminated vested participants in benefit plans collected $1.548 billion owed to them.

"Terminated vested results represent a combination of the present values of lifetime annuity payments made to defined benefits plan participants and beneficiaries, or lump sum balance payments, plus interest distributions paid as either retroactive lump sums or included in actuarially adjusted future annuity amounts,” the release said.

EBSA Benefits Advisors also closed 175,000 inquiries coming from the toll-free number or the EBSA website, the release said. This amounted to $499.5 million in recovered benefits. Additionally, $84.8 million was recovered through the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program and Abandoned Plan Program, a fact sheet by EBSA said.

EBSA oversight authority includes 734,000 retirement plans, two million health plans and 662,000 welfare benefit plans including life or disability insurance, DOL.gov said. This covers around 158 million workers and includes $12.9 trillion in assets. The administration “balances proactive enforcement with compliance assistance and works diligently to provide quality assistance to plan participants and beneficiaries,” according to their website.

“The Employee Benefits Security Administration works diligently to ensure American workers, retirees and beneficiaries receive the benefits they have earned,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security Ali Khawar said. “The results for fiscal year 2021 underscore our commitment to assuring the security of the retirement, health and other workplace related benefits of America’s workers and their families.”