President and First Lady Retirement Pay, Pension, and Perks

A former president receives a lifetime pension of $253,100 a year in 2026, along with federally funded office space, a personal staff, healthcare eligibility, travel and security funding, and lifetime Secret Service protection. A former first lady receives no pension of her own. Her main federal benefit while her husband is living is Secret Service protection, and if she is widowed she may claim a $20,000 annual allowance under strict conditions. That is the shape of president and first lady retirement pay, and the details below explain how each piece works.

The Presidential Pension

The pension begins the day a president leaves office and continues for life. The amount is tied to the salary of a Cabinet Secretary — Executive Level I on the federal pay scale — which sits at $253,100 for 2026. Treasury pays it monthly.¹² A sitting president, by comparison, earns $400,000 plus a $50,000 expense allowance.³

There is no separate cost-of-living formula. The pension moves whenever Cabinet Secretary pay moves, and stays flat when Congress freezes senior executive pay.²

The money is fully taxable as ordinary income. Withholding follows the same rules as any other pension, and a former president can adjust or opt out of withholding using Form W-4P.⁴

Who Qualifies

The Former Presidents Act covers anyone who held the office and left by any means other than removal through impeachment conviction by the Senate.² Resignation does not disqualify. Richard Nixon kept full eligibility after resigning in 1974 because the impeachment process never reached a Senate trial.

A president removed by Senate conviction would lose the pension, office funding, staff allowance, and travel reimbursement. No president has ever been removed this way, so the provision has never been tested.

Office Space and Staff

The General Services Administration provides each former president with a furnished office. The former president chooses the city, the building, and the floor, and GSA has no authority to reject the location.⁵

GSA also funds a personal staff selected by the former president, answerable only to him. Total staff compensation is capped at $150,000 a year for the first 30 months after leaving office, then drops to $96,000 a year for life.² Those caps have not been updated since at least the late 1970s. Records-review work can be supplemented from broader GSA appropriations for “Allowances and Office Staff for Former Presidents.”

Secret Service Protection

Former presidents and their spouses receive Secret Service protection for life. A spouse loses protection if she remarries. Children are protected until age 16.⁶ Protection can be declined, which matters for the travel funding described below.

Healthcare

A former president can stay enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program if he was covered for at least five years of federal service immediately before leaving office, or for his entire period of service since first becoming eligible if that was less than five years.⁷ This is the same plan open to millions of federal employees and retirees, not a special presidential benefit.

Former presidents may also be seen at military hospitals, but they pay standard Department of Defense billing rates rather than receiving free care.

Travel and Security Funding

The Former Presidents Act authorizes up to $1 million a year for each former president’s security and travel expenses, and up to $500,000 a year for a spouse.² The catch: this funding is available only to those not receiving Secret Service protection. Because nearly every former president and spouse accepts lifetime coverage, this money rarely gets used.

What a Former First Lady Receives

A former first lady gets no pension of her own under any federal law. While her husband is alive, her main federal benefit is lifetime Secret Service protection, which ends if she remarries.⁶

If the former president dies, the surviving spouse becomes eligible for a $20,000 annual allowance, paid monthly by Treasury. The conditions are strict:²

She must give up any other federal pension or annuity she is entitled to under federal law.
The allowance ends if she remarries before turning 60.
The allowance is suspended while she holds any salaried federal position.

The waiver makes the $20,000 an either-or choice. A widow with a larger pension from her own federal career — military, congressional, or other government service — would generally be better off keeping that pension and declining the $20,000. Several presidential widows have done exactly that.

How a Former Vice President Compares

Former vice presidents do not receive benefits under the Former Presidents Act. Their retirement pay comes through the Federal Employees Retirement System, the same plan available to other federal employees. The amount depends on years of creditable service and the average of the three highest-earning years, and time in Congress or other federal roles can be combined with the vice presidency.

The structure produces very different outcomes. A former president receives a flat $253,100 whether he served four years or eight. A former vice president’s pension varies with career history. President Biden’s combined pension from decades in the Senate and eight years as vice president was calculated at roughly $166,000 a year before he became president — a substantial figure, but well below the presidential pension he receives now.

1
OPM.gov. Salary Table No. 2026-EX
2
National Archives. Former Presidents Act
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 102 – Compensation of the President
4
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 410, Pensions and Annuities
5
govinfo. Former Presidents – Office and Security Costs and Other Information
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3056 – Powers, Authorities, and Duties of United States Secret Service
7
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 890 – Federal Employees Health Benefits Program