Government auditors review travel vouchers, paychecks, and every other financial transaction. When they turn up an apparent overpayment, you can expect a recoupment notice.
 
You know that spending a career in the military entails monitoring by the accountants until the day you die. But you probably never realized how literally that statement applies.
 
Retired servicemembers should understand that one job of the auditors at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) is to make sure your retired pay check terminates precisely when you do. And that can mean some unpleasant news for your survivor — especially if you’re inconsiderate enough to kick the bucket toward the end of the month.
 
If you die April 20, current law says you’re due only retired pay for the first 20 days of the month. But notifying DFAS probably won’t be the first thing on your family’s mind. In many cases, a retiree’s death is reported too late to adjust the final month’s retired paycheck to reflect only the portion of
the month during which the retiree still was alive. So chances are that DFAS will deposit the full April retired pay check into your account May 1.
 
Your grieving spouse will use that money to pay the mortgage, buy food, and meet other expenses. Then DFAS auditors will make an electronic visit to your bank to recoup the final month’s retired pay check from your account and refund only 20 days’ worth of pay.
 
More than likely, it will be at least a couple of months before your survivor sees Survivor Benefit Plan payments start, retroactive to your date of death. Meanwhile, the survivor has to deal with the DFAS accountants and see funds unexpectedly depleted that he or she already had spent to pay the monthly bills that don’t stop when you do.
 
MOAA thinks it’s just plain wrong to subject survivors to such financial nit-picking at this traumatic time in their lives. If there’s ever a time for government accountants to give a military beneficiary a tiny break, surely this is it.
 
That’s why MOAA strongly endorses Rep. Walter Jones’ (R-N.C.) Military Retiree Survivor Comfort Act (H.R. 657). Jones’ common-sense bill would authorize payment of full retired pay for the month of death and begin SBP eligibility as of the first day of the following month.
 
Surely, this has to be more sensitive and appropriate than sending electronic buzzards to extract money from survivors’ bank accounts even while families are still grieving. It would make the accountants’ jobs easier, too.

Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., director of MOAA government relations