(01-15) 13:30 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

The direct income President George W. Bush receives from taxpayers will be cut in half when he leaves the White House next week. Still, he'll receive a pension of almost $200,000 to tide him over in his first year of retirement in his new home in Dallas.

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Vice President Dick Cheney also will be able to survive a prolonged recession with a pension starting at about $132,000, according to the National Taxpayers Union, a taxpayer advocacy group that follows pension issues.

The president's pension is set by the 1958 Former Presidents Act. Bush, who receives a $400,000 annual salary as president, will get an almost identical pension in 2009 — factoring in the 20 days in January he was still president — the same as Jimmy Carter, his father George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Their pension for the year is $196,700, a figure that will grow to $203,600 next year and $210,700 in 2011. The NTU estimates that if Bush, now 62, reaches his current life expectancy of 83.5 years, he will receive pension payments of $5,564,800, compared to the $3.2 million he earned serving in the White House.

The 1958 act also provides a former president with office space and office staff, a travel fund and mailing privileges. A presidential widow can get a lifetime annual stipend of $20,000. In fiscal year 2008, the General Services Administration provided total allowances of more than $1 million for Clinton, and almost $800,000 for George H.W. Bush, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Former presidents up through Clinton could, if they so chose, receive lifetime Secret Service protection. Congress changed that in 1997 with an act limiting protection for future ex-presidents and their families to 10 years, barring exceptions for specific threats.

The NTU's Pete Sepp said the "pension champion" was former President Gerald Ford, who served less than 2 1/2 years in the White House but also spent 24 years in the House. He was receiving more than $300,000 a year when he died in 2006 at age 93. Presidents receive the same pension regardless of how long they are in the White House.

Cheney, who also serves as president of the Senate, is on the same pension plan as members of Congress. The NTU estimated his initial benefit of $132,451 based on his more than 29 years of government service, including eight as vice president, 10 as a member of the House and more than 10 in executive positions such as White House chief of staff in the Ford administration and defense secretary in the first Bush administration.

Members of Congress, who can also contribute to 401(k) type programs, are eligible for a pension at age 62 if they have completed at least five years of service or at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service.

The Congressional Research Service, in a report last year, said the average annual pension currently received by retired members was $36,732 in 2007. The NTU estimated that Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who was defeated for re-election last November after serving four decades in the Senate, is eligible for an annual pension of about $122,000.

Sepp said a married member of Congress retiring at age 62 after eight years in office would get an initial pension of a little more than $20,000. Rank-and-file lawmakers in 2009 will receive salaries of $169,300. (SF Chronicle)