The following tables provide the components of total pension and postretirement benefit cost:



	Pension Benefits
	For the three months ended
	March 31,

($ in millions)	2020		2019

Components of total pension benefit cost
Service cost	$	25	$	21
Interest cost on projected benefit obligation		30		33
Expected return on plan assets		(50)		(43)
Amortization of unrecognized loss		17		14
Net periodic pension benefit cost		22		25
Pension settlement costs		103		-
Total pension benefit cost	$	125	$	25


	Postretirement Benefits
	For the three months ended
	March 31,

($ in millions)	2020		2019

Components of net periodic postretirement benefit cost
Service cost	$	5	$	5
Interest cost on projected benefit obligation		8		10
Amortization of prior service cost (credit)		(8)		(1)
Amortization of unrecognized (gain) loss		2		(2)
Net periodic postretirement benefit cost	$	7	$	12

The components of net periodic benefit cost other than the service cost component are included in “Investment and other income” in the consolidated statement of operations.

The pension plan contains provisions that provide certain employees with the option of receiving a lump sum payment upon retirement. Frontier’s accounting policy is to record these payments as a settlement only if, in the aggregate, they exceed the sum of the annual service and interest costs for the Pension Plan’s net periodic pension benefit cost. During the three months ended March 31, 2020, lump sum pension settlement payments to terminated or retired individuals amounted to $310 million, which exceeded the settlement threshold of $211 million, and as a result, Frontier recognized non-cash settlement charges totaling $103 million during the first quarter of 2020. The non-cash charge accelerated the recognition of a portion of the previously unrecognized actuarial losses in the Pension Plan. These non-cash charges increased our recorded net loss and accumulated deficit, with a corresponding adjustment offset to accumulated other comprehensive loss in stockholders’ equity.

During the first three months of 2020 and 2019, we capitalized $7 million and $6 million, respectively, of pension and OPEB expense into the cost of our capital expenditures, as the costs relate to our engineering and plant construction activities.

Our Pension Plan assets decreased from $2,730 million at December 31, 2019 to $2,166 million at March 31, 2020, a decrease of $564 million, or 21%. This decrease was a result of benefit payments of $327 million and investment losses (net of investment management and administrative fees) of $274 million, partially offset by contributions of $37 million.