Federal Pensions

Let’s take a look at some of the things about federal retirement that Keith didn’t mention in his article.

The average federal annuity is $12,500. In many instances two or even three people have to live on that.

Poverty level in California for a family of four is $10,700.

The survivor annuitants (the widows) have an average annuity of $5,700.

Poverty level in California for one person is $6,000.

The increase in the cost of living in the last five years has been 27.3%. If the federal retirees had not gotten cost-of-living increases the average federal pension would now be $9,500. Does Keith think he could live on that?

The federal retirement fund has consistently taken in more money than it has paid out. For 1984 the excess of income over pay-outs was $14,783,468 and for 1983 $13,883,375.

Government salaries are about 18% below what private industry pays for the same skills, and an almost decent retirement system is all that has kept a lot of people working for the government. Take that away and the government’s recruitment problems, which are already serious, will get much worse. What government employee in his right mind is going to spend 25 to 30 years to earn a government pension only to have much of it eaten up by inflation within a few years of his retirement?

Finally, by not giving the civilian retirees a cost-of-living increase the government will save about $400 million. That’s a small amount alongside the $2 billion the Defense Department threw away on the Sergeant York anti-aircraft weapon, or the $95 billion in federal income taxes not paid by the underground economy because the Internal Revenue Services doesn’t have enough people to go out and do something about it.

There are other and better ways of saving money than taking it out of the hides of the people who spent so many years giving their best efforts to the government.

ALVIN SAMUELS

San Pedro

Samuels is president of the San Pedro Chapter of the National Assn. of Retired Federal Employees.