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The $200 a month figure has been used very optimistically in the sales talk.  As illustrated above the figure could be $56.  Do you know that to receive a pension of more than $200 a month that you must have worked more than 20 years and averaged more than $900 a month wages for those 20 years?  Not many pilots will receive anything over $200 a month pension.  

There are other provisions that seem peculiar.  We have some father and son combinations among pilots, quite a few brothers fly, but a beneficiary can receive a pension from one pilot only, Suppose two brothers, both of whom have been paying taxes under this Act, die and leave their mother as beneficiary.   She doesn't receive a pension from each of them.  She can receive only one pension; remember though both sons paid into the fund.

Another deal is that any monetary benefits a pilot might receive from service rendered in World War II are deducted from his pension. It is hard to see any connection between military service and this Act. A benefit earned during the War and a benefit paid for by these taxes shouldn't effect each other.   

The method of computing air line service prior to 1948 is such that is penalizes one pilot for having flown more hours in 1947 than another pilot. This hardly seems fair, we're all in this together.

Supposedly the Act is to protect the pilot's family when he dies. The protection is inadequate. Consider the family of a pilot who has flown 20 years for an average $800 a month wages. Mind you that less than 20 years service or less than $800 a month will reduce the following benefits:

For a childless widow after she is 60, $84 per month, nothing before 60.
For a widow with children, $84 per month until children are 21, then nothing until she is 60.
Each child, $57 per month until they are 21, then nothing more.
A dependent father over 65, $57 per month, nothing before he is 65.
A dependent mother over 60, $57 per month, nothing before she is 60.

The total of these benefits cannot exceed $228 per month. Any wages earned by the children or the parents will be deducted from their benefits. Don't forget that if the pilot had served for less than 20 years or averaged less than $800 a month all the above benefits will be reduced.

Further, your widow loses all benefits if she ever remarries even though you paid all the taxes required by the Act. Also if you had not been killed in the line of duty your dependents would receive nothing at all unless you had either 10 years service or had flown half of the time since you were 27. Suppose the auto wreck we discussed before had been fatal. Would your family receive anything at all?

There are, under certain conditions, lump sum payments made to beneficiaries upon the death of a pilot. These payments are very meagre. Consider a pilot who had averaged $350 a month wages as a Copilot for 5 years, then he was promoted and after averaging $800 a month wages for 5 years as Captain he dies. The lump sum payments would be as follows: (He and his employer paid in $10,692)

If no beneficiaries exist his estate would receive $2673.
If he leaves a childless widow she receives $1782.
If he leaves a widow with 2 children under 20 they receive no lump sum at all. Their income will be $135 per month.