Do Former Presidents Get a Lifetime Pension and Perks?

A former U.S. president receives a lifetime pension currently set at $253,100 a year, a federally funded office with staff and travel support, and Secret Service protection for life. Most of these former presidents’ pension and benefits come from the Former Presidents Act of 1958, though Secret Service coverage sits under a separate statute. The package begins the day a president leaves office and continues, with a few conditions, for the rest of their life.

How Much the Pension Pays

The pension is pegged to the salary of a Cabinet Secretary, technically the Executive Level I pay rate on the federal Executive Schedule. For 2026, that comes to $253,100 per year.¹ In 2025 it was $250,600.² Because the amount tracks executive pay, it adjusts automatically whenever Congress raises those salaries.

Treasury pays the pension monthly, it counts as taxable income, and it starts the moment a president leaves office.³ One rule pauses it: if a former president takes a paid federal job, elected or appointed, the pension stops for the duration of that service. They collect the federal salary instead. Once the role ends, the pension resumes.⁴

Office, Staff, and Travel

The General Services Administration provides each former president with a furnished, equipped office at a location of their choosing anywhere in the United States. GSA covers the lease and handles equipment, supplies, and administrative support.⁵

Former presidents hire their own staff and set the pay, within a total payroll cap. For the first 30 months out of office, combined staff compensation cannot exceed $150,000 per year. After that, the cap drops to $96,000. No individual staffer can be paid above the Executive Level II rate.³ These figures are set by statute and have not been raised in years, so their real value has eroded.

GSA also reimburses travel for the former president and up to two staff members at a time. There is no fixed travel budget; the agency approves expenses case by case. For scale, GSA’s FY 2025 budget request for all living former presidents combined was $5.5 million, covering pensions, rent, staff, and operating costs.⁶

Secret Service Protection

Former presidents and their spouses receive lifetime Secret Service protection under 18 U.S.C. § 3056. A spouse loses protection only if they remarry. Children of former presidents are covered until they turn 16.⁷

Coverage was not always lifelong. Before 2013, presidential and children’s protection were capped at ten years after a president left office. The Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012 restored lifetime coverage for presidents and their spouses and removed the ten-year limit on children’s protection.⁷

Because Secret Service protection sits in a different statute than the pension and office benefits, it survives impeachment and conviction. A former president may also decline Secret Service coverage and instead receive up to $1 million a year for private security and travel, with up to $500,000 for a spouse. Most accept the Secret Service option, so this provision is rarely used.³

Health Coverage

There is no special health entitlement for former presidents. Like other retired federal employees, they can continue coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program if they were enrolled for the five years of federal service immediately before leaving office. Two full presidential terms clear this bar easily. A one-term president with no prior federal employment might not, though OPM can waive the five-year requirement in exceptional cases.⁸

Benefits for a Surviving Spouse

When a former president dies, the surviving spouse can receive a $20,000 annual pension from Treasury. That figure was set in 1958 and is not indexed. The spouse must give up any other federal annuity or pension to take it, so for someone entitled to a larger federal benefit elsewhere, accepting the $20,000 can be the wrong choice.³

The spousal pension ends if the surviving spouse remarries before age 60. Remarriage at 60 or later does not affect it. That is a looser rule than Secret Service protection, which ends on any remarriage regardless of age. The spousal pension also pauses during any period the spouse holds a paid federal position.³

When Benefits Are Lost

The Former Presidents Act defines a “former president” as someone whose service ended by any means other than removal through impeachment. A president impeached by the House and convicted by a two-thirds vote in the Senate falls outside that definition and forfeits the pension, office, staff funding, and every other benefit the act provides.³

Resignation works differently. A president who resigns, even during an active impeachment, still qualifies as a former president and keeps full benefits. Richard Nixon received his pension and office support for the rest of his life after resigning before any Senate trial. Losing an election, or choosing not to run again, has no effect on eligibility.

Presidential Libraries

Presidential libraries are a related but separate program. Construction is funded privately, and once a library is built, the National Archives and Records Administration takes over operations. NARA’s FY 2026 budget request included $109.2 million for the library system, with $41.8 million for facility operations and maintenance.⁹ For any president who first took office on or after July 1, 2002, federal law requires an endowment equal to 60 percent of construction and land costs before NARA will accept the building. Earlier libraries faced a 20 percent requirement.¹⁰

1
OPM. Salary Table No. 2026-EX
2
OPM. Salary Table No. 2025-EX
3
National Archives. Former Presidents Act 3 USC 102 Note
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 102 – Compensation of the President
5
United States General Accounting Office. Former Presidents – Office and Security Costs and Other Information
6
GSA. FY 2025 Congressional Justification
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3056 – Powers, Authorities, and Duties of United States Secret Service
8
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 890 – Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
9
National Archives and Records Administration. FY 2026 Congressional Justification
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 44 USC 2112 – Presidential Archival Depository