US Congress pension: separate from Social Security?
Question asked:
“Members of the United States Congress receive a pension through a federal retirement system separate from Social Security.”
Summary
Members of Congress are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which provides a pension distinct from Social Security. They also pay Social Security taxes and receive Social Security benefits, but their pension is administered through the separate federal retirement system.
Sources 58 searched
- Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Social Security alone. Congressional pensions, like those of other federal employees, are financed through a combination of employee and employer contributions. All Members pay Social Security payroll taxes equal to 6.2% of the Social Security ...
- Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress Updated July 25, 2023
All Members pay Social Security payroll · taxes equal to 6.2% of the Social Security taxable wage base ($160,200 in 2023). Members first · covered by FERS prior to 2013 also pay 1.3% of full salary to the Civil Service Retirement and · Disability Fund (CSRDF).
- Retirement Benefits Under the CSRS Offset Plan
Congressional pensions, like those of other federal employees, are financed through a combination of employee and employer contributions. All Members pay Social Security payroll taxes equal to 6.2% of the Social Security taxable wage base ($160,200 in 2023). Members first covered by FERS prior ...
- Weekly Column: Fact vs. Fiction: Congressional Pensions | U.S. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota
While it is true that prior to 1984 they didn’t pay Social Security taxes, they also weren’t eligible to receive Social Security benefits. Today all senators and representatives are required to pay them.
- Federal Retirement: Benefits for Members of Congress, Congressional Staff, and Other Employees
FERS includes (1) a pension plan; ... as a three-part retirement package. The Social Security Amendments of 1983 required all Members of Congress to be covered by Social Security on January 1, 1984, regardless of when they entered Congress....
- Did Trump propose 'Congressional Reform Act of 2025' to limit lawmakers' privileges? Here's the truth | Snopes.com
Congress members first elected in 1984 or later are covered automatically under the Federal Employees' Retirement System, which other government workers use, and can decline coverage.
- Congressional Pensions | Snopes.com
It was true prior to 1984 that Congressmen did not pay into the Social Security fund because they participated in a separate program for civil servants (the Civil Service Retirement System, or CSRS), but that program was closed to government ...
- PolitiFact | Email message says members of Congress get a full pension for serving just one term
It's never full pay and the only one-term members who would be eligible for any pension would be senators. This claim has been around the rotunda a few times. Our friends at Snopes.com have emails dating to 2000 reporting that senators and congressmen, when they retire, continue to draw the same paycheck until they die. FactCheck.org has also debunked the email. Over the years the claim has been accompanied by assertions that members of Congress don't pay into their Social Security (they have since 1984) or they don't contribute anything toward their retirement (they do), or that they are exempt from the new health-care law or claims of sexual harassment (they're not).
This fact check is free and donation-based. $1 powers ~30 fact-checks.
