Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans

The following table presents the components of net periodic benefit cost recognized in earnings during the three months ended December 28, 2018 and December 29, 2017 (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended
	December 28, 2018			December 29, 2017
Component:
Service cost	$	2,489		$	2,281
Interest cost	15,142			15,424
Expected return on plan assets	(24,837		)	(25,073		)
Amortization of previously unrecognized items	2,400			2,290
Plan Amendment and settlement loss (gain)	1,363			3,819
	$	(3,443	)	$	(1,259	)

As a result of the adoption of ASU 2017-07, Compensation- Retirement Benefits (Topic 715): Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, the service cost component of net periodic pension expense has been presented in the same line item as other compensation costs (direct cost of contracts and selling, general and administrative expenses) and the other components of net periodic pension expense have been reclassified from selling, general and administrative expense and direct cost of contracts and instead presented in miscellaneous income (expense), net on the Consolidated Statements of Earnings for the three months ended December 28, 2018 and December 29, 2017 in the amount of $4.0 million and $3.7 million, respectively.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2019, the Company elected to discontinue the CH2M Hill Retiree Medical Plan and the OMI Retiree Medical Plan, effective December 31, 2018. Lump sum payments were made to certain participants in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, resulting in a partial plan settlement and related settlement gain of $2.2 million. In the second quarter of fiscal 2019, lump sum payments were made to remaining plan participants and the plans were fully settled, resulting in an additional $32.0 million in settlement gains which will be recognized in the second quarter of fiscal 2019.

On January 1, 2019, the CH2M Hill Pension Plan and the CH2M Hill IDC Pension Plan merged into its Sverdrup Pension Plan. The newly combined plan is called the Jacobs Consolidated Pension Plan. In December 2017, the Company incurred a settlement loss of approximately $3.8 million related to its Sverdrup Pension Plan in the U.S.

Due to a recent ruling by the High Court in the United Kingdom regarding equalization between men and women of a tranche of pension (the Guaranteed Minimum Pension) accrued between 1990 and 1997, Jacobs measured the estimated impact of this ruling in its consolidated financial statements, resulting in an increase of approximately $38.2 million in the ASC 715 balance sheet liability in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, with an offset to other comprehensive income, net of tax.

The following table presents certain information regarding the Company’s cash contributions to our pension plans for fiscal 2018 (in thousands):



Cash contributions made during the first three months of fiscal 2019	$	7,818
Cash contributions projected for the remainder of fiscal 2019	30,026
Total	$	37,844