Congressional Pension Plan

[Agtuary]

There is an e-mail floating around that talks about the Pension members of Congress draw and the fact they don't pay SS taxes on their Congressional salaries. People keep asking me about it, so I am trying to get some info on it.

What are the eligibility requirements (1 full term, 1 year, 1 day)? Is it based on service in any way? I don't know much about Congressional salaries either, so is the plan based on salary (or do all members get the same salary)?

Any details and/or discussion is appreciated.

If you would like to see the e-mail let me know and I'll post it or forward it to you.

[Agtuary]

Apparently the e-mail has been around for quite a while. Here is a link that talks about it:

http://epistolary.org/141.html

[mikey]

It looks like their pension calculations are pretty complicated due to the fact that so many of them work in federal jobs outside congress, but I found some info for you.

Go to gao.org (the general accounting office website). There is a search box in the upper left. Search on Federal Pensions. About the fifth article down is titled "GGD-97-178R Federal Pensions: Relationship Between Pensions and Final Salaries for Retired ..."

Click on that. It is a 13 page letter to Ted Stevens. After the letter on page 14 is "Enclosure 1" which describes a lot of the benefits.