19. Pension Benefits

The Company has a noncontributory defined benefit pension plan covering certain employees who work at least 1,000 hours per year. The participants have a vested interest in their accrued benefit after five full years of service. The benefits of the plan are based upon the employee’s years of service and average annual earnings for the highest five consecutive calendar years during the final ten-year period of employment. Plan assets are primarily debt securities (including US Treasury and Agency securities, corporate notes and bonds), listed common stocks (including shares of AmeriServ Financial, Inc. common stock which is limited to 10% of the plan’s assets), mutual funds, and short-term cash equivalent instruments. The net periodic pension cost for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018 were as follows (in thousands):


	Three months ended				Nine months ended
	September 30,				September 30,
	2019		2018		2019		2018
Components of net periodic benefit cost
Service cost	$	368	$	370	$	1,104	$	1,110
Interest cost		392		318		1,176		954
Expected return on plan assets		(756)		(699)		(2,268)		(2,097)
Special termination benefit liability		—		16		—		48
Recognized net actuarial loss		412		387		1,236		1,161
Net periodic pension cost	$	416	$	392	$	1,248	$	1,176

The service cost component of net periodic benefit cost is included in “Salaries and employee benefits” and all other components of net periodic benefit cost are included in “Other expense” in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

The Company implemented a soft freeze of its defined benefit pension plan to provide that non-union employees hired on or after January 1, 2013 and union employees hired on or after January 1, 2014 are not eligible to participate in the pension plan. Instead, such employees are eligible to participate in a qualified 401(k) plan. This change was made to help reduce pension costs in future periods.