Military Pay (non political)

[Dar~]

Sorry, just really need to rant. I HATE the gov't sometimes. I bid on two things on ebay this payday, knowing I would have a bit of extra money for clothes. What happens, the gov't decided (once again) that they overpaid us and took it back. I am SO sick of their errors being my short paycheck. WTF!!! Now I have items on ebay I can't pay for and no gas money. Fuckers!

 

[Liar]

What happens, the gov't decided (once again) that they overpaid us and took it back.

That sux.

Par'n me for asking, but how does that work? Do they miscalculate overtime? And do they actually take back money that has been payed out (Shouldn't be legally possible. Once it's on your account, they might deduct the excess from the next pay. But not access money on a privare individual's account.), or is this prior to pay day?

curiously,
#L

 

[Dar~]

what they do is they direct deposit funds into our account. (military doesn't get overtime) if they realize say six months after they deposit it that it is over what they should have given you, before your next check is deposited they take out the amount that they decided was over. Most times we dont' know we are being over paid until we get a check that is 300 dollars. about 4-500 less than it is usually around. I hate it.

 

[Weird Harold]

what they do is they direct deposit funds into our account. (military doesn't get overtime) if they realize say six months after they deposit it that it is over what they should have given you, before your next check is deposited they take out the amount that they decided was over. Most times we dont' know we are being over paid until we get a check that is 300 dollars. about 4-500 less than it is usually around. I hate it.

What kind of allowance are they paying and then disallowing that you have a recurring problem.

The only time I had that kind of problem with my pay was if I made a change in allotments or took a casual payment (before the days of direct deposit). Automtic changes, like the termination of overseas pay or hazardous duty pay usually weren't a problem because if they didn't stop on time, I was at the finance office the next day to find out why.

One thing I always liked about military pay is that I knew what my check should be and when it should change. If my monthly leave and earnings statement changed by so much as a penny when I wasn't expecting it I made it a point to find out why to avoid just the problem you're having.

 

[Dar~]

What kind of allowance are they paying and then disallowing that you have a recurring problem.

The only time I had that kind of problem with my pay was if I made a change in allotments or took a casual payment (before the days of direct deposit). Automtic changes, like the termination of overseas pay or hazardous duty pay usually weren't a problem because if they didn't stop on time, I was at the finance office the next day to find out why.

One thing I always liked about military pay is that I knew what my check should be and when it should change. If my monthly leave and earnings statement changed by so much as a penny when I wasn't expecting it I made it a point to find out why to avoid just the problem you're having.

Great and well educated questions. We have made no allottment changes in over a year, they just realized they over paid him his clothing allowance that happens once a year. we had no clue it was over the ammount it should have been but they took that and took extra which supposedly we will be getting back between now and next pay period.

 

[Dar~]

Do active duty still get a hardcopy leave and earnings statement in the mail, or do you have to go online like us retired types have to to get the detailed breakdown?

Taking more than the overpayment of clothing allowance -- in fact an overpayment of clothing allowance in the first place -- sounds like you need to get hubby's commander involved in finding out why your finance office is so inept. Computing clothing allowance isn't rocket science, because it's (or at least used to be) a rather simple formula that came up with a fixed amount for any given pay grade -- and the payroll computer software should have computed it automatically anyway; all the finance office should have to to do is verify that it's due.

Yeah, Cannon is pretty inept at everything and the commander could care less. We did talk to finance's commander and worked everything out. it was a wrongly entered number. And, no we no longer get hard copies unless he goes to his orderly room and requests one.
This thread was mainly me needing to scream. now I am fine and things will be worked out.

 

[Weird Harold]

Great and well educated questions. We have made no allottment changes in over a year, they just realized they over paid him his clothing allowance that happens once a year. we had no clue it was over the amount it should have been but they took that and took extra which supposedly we will be getting back between now and next pay period.

Do active duty still get a hardcopy leave and earnings statement in the mail, or do you have to go online like us retired types have to to get the detailed breakdown?

Taking more than the overpayment of clothing allowance -- in fact an overpayment of clothing allowance in the first place -- sounds like you need to get hubby's commander involved in finding out why your finance office is so inept. Computing clothing allowance isn't rocket science, because it's (or at least used to be) a rather simple formula that came up with a fixed amount for any given pay grade -- and the payroll computer software should have computed it automatically anyway; all the finance office should have to to do is verify that it's due.

 

[Liar]

what they do is they direct deposit funds into our account. (military doesn't get overtime) if they realize say six months after they deposit it that it is over what they should have given you, before your next check is deposited they take out the amount that they decided was over. Most times we dont' know we are being over paid until we get a check that is 300 dollars. about 4-500 less than it is usually around. I hate it.

Wow. That is a totally unreasonable way of running a payment operation. I've had similar things happening to me at place I used to work. There it was overtime that confused things. They scewed up and gave me 15% too much pay for 5 months. After that they discovered the error, and I got 15% less the following months. Because they realized that it was totally unreasonable to give me a 25% salary one month, when most of the income is locked up in monthly bills, like rent and electricity. It was not my fault that they screwed up. I accept that they sould have the money back. But in a reasonable way.

 

[Dar~]

Wow. That is a totally unreasonable way of running a payment operation. I've had similar things happening to me at place I used to work. There it was overtime that confused things. They scewed up and gave me 15% too much pay for 5 months. After that they discovered the error, and I got 15% less the following months. Because they realized that it was totally unreasonable to give me a 25% salary one month, when most of the income is locked up in monthly bills, like rent and electricity. It was not my fault that they screwed up. I accept that they sould have the money back. But in a reasonable way.

My big bitch isn't that they took their money back, its that I have two kids and I can't afford Gas to go anywhere. They really should have let us know what happened and then worked with us to create a workable repayment method.

 

[Weird Harold]

Wow. That is a totally unreasonable way of running a payment operation.

We are talking about the government here -- Federal Civil Service is just as unreasonable, BTW (or at least it was when I worked for the USFS about 40 years ago.)

I once got a military paycheck for $0.03 because of taking a casual payment while on leave -- the government just has to balance the books exactly every month and that makes spending $0.17 to print the check and $0.25 (in the 1970's) to mail a check for $0.03 a perfectly logical and acceptable action. Not cashing the check isn't an option either -- they'll spend another $0.25 to send you a letter every month trying to trace the check if it isn't cashed.

It is possible to arrange scaled payback for over-payments, as you got automatically, but it usually requires the intervention of a commander or chaplain.