HB81 Alabama 2021 Session

Updated Feb 22, 2026

Summary

Primary Sponsor: Phillip PettusRepresentative
Republican
Session: Regular Session 2021
Title: Retirement System, stress bill, use of hazardous duty time to calculate years of service for inservice death benefits for firefighters, law enforcement, and correctional officers, Secs. 16-25-14, 36-27-16 am'd.
Summary: HB81 allows hazardous duty time to be counted toward years of service when calculating in-service death benefits for firefighters, law enforcement officers, and correctional officers, retroactively to January 1, 2021.
What This Bill Does
It amends Sections 16-25-14 and 36-27-16 to explicitly permit hazardous duty time to count toward the requisite years of creditable service used to determine in-service death benefits for certain public safety workers. The change is retroactive to January 1, 2021, so it could affect benefits from that date forward. It clarifies that hazardous duty time can be included in the years-of-service calculation for death benefits, potentially altering eligibility or the benefit amount without changing other retirement rules.

Who It Affects
Firefighters, law enforcement officers, and correctional officers who are members of the Alabama retirement systems, for whom hazardous duty time can count toward years of service used to compute in-service death benefits
Surviving spouses or other beneficiaries of these members who receive in-service death benefits, since the benefit calculations may change with the new years-of-service credit

Key Provisions
Hazardous duty time (as defined in Section 36-27-59) may be used to calculate the requisite years of service for in-service death benefits for firefighters, law enforcement officers, and correctional officers
This hazardous duty time credit can be applied even if the member has not yet attained 25 years of creditable service
The act has a retroactive effective date to January 1, 2021, and amends Sections 16-25-14 and 36-27-16 to implement this change

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.
Subjects: Retirement Systems