After The PDBR

How are you guys accessing your Milpay. I finally got my AKO account and boy howdy it has changed....big time! I am sure due to me not having a DFAS account setup I may not be able to read any information. But curious! This coming week will be a month sent my files were sent to DFAS and so far nothing!!! I am about to start calling my PDA and/congressmen! I have the week off before I start working at the VA!!!

Commo

I was advised, once you have gotten your first retirement pay, you are loaded into DFAS system, therefore your SSN is hitched into the MyPay. Once this is completed you have access. You will get a MyPay notice by US mail.

Badge, did you actually get a retirement check? Was it enough to jump up and down about? Not trying to get my hopes up!!! Thanks for the information!

Yeah I did, though I can no longer jump up and down, I sure wouldn't have over the amount. But it was enough to pay the power bill!

You got to be kidding me!!!!! Well it goes to show we are 1% as chapter 61 vets!!!

Update:
I received a statement in the mail from DFAS that indicates that I owe (a remittance is due) over $7000.00 for retro SBP?
Ok, first off, I was medically discharged with severance pay in 2004 due to injury sustained in training (doing my job).
In March of 2011, I had this great idea...why don't I apply to the PDBR for a re-look at my situation. I mean come on I intended to stay at least 20 years like my dad did (32 years) on active duty...you know.. maybe make it a career. I never thought that I would be discharged medically and given a lump sum pay out, be jobless, lose my home to foreclosure and still be on the move trying to figure out life for me and my family. Now a bill for past or retro SBP payments? What the $%&^?
The way I look at things now is that I should have never started the whole PDBR thing.
I am really disappointed and I feel cheated for sure!
The military has acknowledged their wrong doing by re-opening our cases and how do we get re-paid....with a bill!
They give you $100 dollars and take back over $7000.

I assume the PDBR approved your request and changed your discharge to medical retirement?? If so, you elected SBP? If that is the case, then DFAS is going to bill you for SBP premiums from the date you were discharged since that is now the date of your retirement. There is no way around it. I fought this unsuccessfully.

Nolansgrandpa,

When my wife and I talked with the RSO and he did the calculations for SBP it was not cost effective so we declined it! If you have other life insurances that would be the way to go or even pension. Now with that said it is a decision you want to think about the cost effectiveness of SBP! Other question is did you sitdown with an RSO??? If not i would suggest doing so!!!

I declined SBP as well. I was told it would take a claim to the Board of Corrections for Military Records (AFBCMR) to change your selection.

I opted for civil service SBP which is EXPENSIVE. I thought it was the best bet because it gets cost of living increases where other policies are a set amount of money. However, I probably would have declined the coverage if I had to pay 8 years of back premiums. I agree with Justrluk. Go to the BCMR and ask to change you election.

I declined the SBP. I did not have the benefit of speaking to an RSO, but I figured that I would be charged the premium, retroactive.

nolansgrandpa, I am not sure how it works, but it sounds like you may want to look into the financial hardship rules through DFAS that cover this sort of thing.

I concur with Justice, Justrluk, and badge!!!!!

I talked with HRC just now, they did NOT send my package of orders, dd-215, and other stuff because i had a freakin post office box. So now they are sending it out today to my work place.....GEE that would have been nice to know if they would have called me! Good thing I asked about it!!! The other thing it is going to take 2 to 4 weeks to update in Iperms as they are still showing old rank when i was promoted etc etc. I was not upset with the helpdesk or supervisor i talked with but it would have helped knowing what the heck was going on! Now i do and i am ok! Still having issues with DFAS!

Ok...here goes.
The explanation that I received from DFAS regarding the $7000.00 bill for retro SBP dating back to May of 2004 is that I did not decline it when I retired in 2004. What the heck?
I then explained to her that I did not retire in 2004 (physically or literally). I was medically discharged from the Army with severance pay and due to that I would not have been offered SBP. It took a while to get that point across, but finally she got it.

DFAS is really clueless when it comes to the PDBR. They are shooting from the hip!

I did submit a DD form 2656 denying SBP (which is a disgrace to military families to begin with in my opinion) but failed to have my wife sign it according to DFAS.
I am still awaiting a welcome packet from DFAS that tells me everything that I need to do? I still do not have my DD215. I will not receive a check from DFAS because my VA check is greater than my retirement. Also, I did have over $72,000 witheld from my VA compensation check (no monthly check from June 2004-Oct. 2008) to pay back the severance pay. I am not to sure of what to do about that since I should have been retired in the first place and I would have never received a severance pay to begin with. So, who owes me that money back?

This whole ordeal is frustrating.

I received a bill for 2000 dollars for the SBP. I never received a retirement briefing, i only received a packet in the mail, i had no idea. I am whizzed and i am not paying the 2g's. I have now been medically retired for 2 years and for what? Nothing. I quit fighting, i contacted Congress and i was told by a staffer that they cannot force an agency to do anything. So contacting Congress is absolutely useless, these bozos can't even pass a dam budget. I may sue them over the whole severance pay thing. I think i will next year, if sequestration doesn't ruin DoD.

Well, you automatically are enrolled in SBP UNLESS your spouse signs the 2656 consenting to you declining it. Thats by law. So a member of Congress who is responsible for the law isn't going to help you. Nolansgrandpa, I stick with what I said before - go to the BCMR. Say that you were not provided any guidance on how to complete your 2656 and did not understand that your wife had to sign the form. Have your wife sign a notorized affidavit saying she had agreed with your decision to decline SBP.

Ed,

I wasn't necessarily referring to the SBP. I was referring to issues with the VA. A Senator in a state i lived in, his senior staffer told me point blank that they cannot do anything but submit a request for information on a persons behalf, they cannot force a department to act on something. That is when i quit writing the U.S. Congress. The only way to fix a lot of these issues is to do what i think Jason has suggested in the past, and that is to sue. Take this to court, this whole thing and get it fixed.

Seminole, I don't understand what your issue is then. But realize that disability entitlements are governed by law. So to be successful in court, you would have to show that the military violated law (yes, I know this is overly simplified).

When I received my package from DFAS, it was an audit of my military pay account ONLY. I, too, do not get mil pay as the VA benefits are greater. Also, they reviewed what gross pay would have been over the years less the VBA amount and came up with a credit due me of 5 figures. I'll never see it as I still owe on the severance. They did NOT include what I've already paid to the VA, so I know they've not communicated to that degree yet. I keep track of what's being withheld from VA comp, and it looks at though the VA has stopped collecting severance recoupment. I'll look in the next RAS and see if they properly reflect VA withholding to date, but this is troubling; they better not lose the $76K paid so far!

I'm awaiting my PDBR as well. I already paid my entire severance back ($7,400). If I am retired, I know the process will be jacked up.