Posted on Aug 6, 2020
Was there ever a time when PEBD was determined upon contracting into ROTC?
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I have a friend who commissioned in 2009, contracted with ROTC in 2006. The story goes that when he first commissioned, he noticed his PEBD was his contracting date rather than commissioning date. The DFAS folks at the time told him that was accurate. Now, 10 years later, someone at HRC picked up on the "error" and he owes over $30,000 back pay. I don't know if it's relevant, but he has been USAR this whole time and is now a MAJ. The result of his pay being withheld while still being taxed as if he were getting paid fully is that he now ends up paying money each month to go to drill.
To me, it doesn't sound like there is a whole lot he can do about it, but I wanted to do my due diligence to see if anyone in the community has experienced something similar or knows something that might help him out. That's a pretty massive debt.
To me, it doesn't sound like there is a whole lot he can do about it, but I wanted to do my due diligence to see if anyone in the community has experienced something similar or knows something that might help him out. That's a pretty massive debt.
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 7
The contracting date is the PEBD only when the Soldier participated in Simultaneous Membership Program.
Unfortunately, this error is extremely common and not usually discovered till retirement. Fortunately, it’s common enough that there is a simple fix to it. Have the Soldier contact DFAS in order to submit the request to waive the debt. It’s a fairly straight forward process that DFAS approves all the time. However, the law is that they cannot do it automatically, the Soldier must make the request.
Unfortunately, this error is extremely common and not usually discovered till retirement. Fortunately, it’s common enough that there is a simple fix to it. Have the Soldier contact DFAS in order to submit the request to waive the debt. It’s a fairly straight forward process that DFAS approves all the time. However, the law is that they cannot do it automatically, the Soldier must make the request.
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SFC (Join to see)
MAJ Ken Landgren that's good information. I've only seen this happen a handful of times, but not enough to know which waivers get approved and which don't
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LTC Jason Mackay
SFC (Join to see) I thought for a long period PEBD=BASD=Commissioning Date the Officer was a Gold Bar Recruiter
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CDR Terry Boles
I had a new 1st Lt that had a similar problem. He was ROTC then went to college for physical therapy. Shortly after reporting to Davis-Monthan he was hit up by finance requiring a payback of over payments supposedly as enlisted during his ROTC days. His advice by finance was to submit a hardship waiver and it was approved. I can not remember the ROTC back story but waivers do get approved. Highly recommend this avenue for the major.
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That seems to be an unusually large debt for a PEBD difference. I don’t know if ROTC contract date was ever used for PEBD, though I know it was (and may still be) used for “DIEMS” (Date Initially Entered Military Service) for non-prior service folks for purposes of which retirement system/calculation applies.
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1LT (Join to see)
Thank you, sir. I was surprised about the amount at first too, but it does add up quickly! I had a two year difference (in the other direction, fortunately), and my back pay was about 1/3 of his debt within just two years after commissioning!
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He is not the one who entered the date in his records. Some finance cleck had to have entered it in the records. It would be interesting to see if the same thing happened to people who entered at the same time and location.
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