# Plain Language Summary: Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act of 2021

This bill addresses a long-standing problem affecting teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public employees who didn't pay Social Security taxes on their government jobs. Many of these workers have both a government pension (from their public service) and Social Security benefits (from other work). Currently, a rule called the "Windfall Elimination Provision" significantly reduces their Social Security checks because of this combination. This bill aims to make their benefits fairer.

Here's what's actually happening: If you worked as a public employee without paying Social Security taxes but also worked other jobs where you did pay Social Security taxes, the government assumes you didn't need as much Social Security income. So it cuts your Social Security benefit—sometimes by hundreds of dollars per month. The bill creates a new way to calculate benefits for people in this situation, essentially treating their government work earnings as if they had been covered by Social Security all along. For people who first become eligible for benefits after 2022, this new calculation method would apply automatically. For people already receiving reduced benefits, the bill provides an additional monthly payment of $150 (or the full amount they were unfairly cut, whichever is less) to partially restore what they lost.

The bill also requires Social Security to provide better information to public employees about how their benefits will be affected, and it directs a government study to examine whether state and local governments have adequate records of their employees' earnings from public service. Finally, the bill includes a provision ensuring that Social Security's trust funds won't be harmed by these changes—Congress will appropriate whatever money is needed to keep the funds in the same financial position they would have been in without this law.

Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act of 2021

Neal, Richard E.

Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act of 2021 This bill establishes an alternative formula to calculate Social Security retirement benefits for those who receive pensions for certain non-covered employment. (The existing formula is known as the windfall elimination provision.) The alternative formula adjusts an individual's total lifetime earnings based on the proportion of covered earnings (i.e., earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes). It applies to individuals who (1) first become eligible for benefits after 2022, (2) have earnings from non-covered service performed after 1977, and (3) have less than 30 years of coverage (i.e., years in which a beneficiary is considered to have contributed a substantial amount into the Social Security trust funds). Beneficiaries receive the higher benefit amount as calculated under the alternative method or the existing formula. In addition, the bill provides rebates for certain beneficiaries currently impacted by the existing formula. The Social Security Administration must include non-covered earnings in Social Security account statements, and the Government Accountability Office must study the availability of certain information related to retirement plans maintained by state and local governments.