Military Officer - December 2008 - (Page 34) washingtonscene target, with the Army Reserve barely missing at 89 percent. Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, who leads the Army Recruiting Command, said the Army’s high school grad goal is “a challenge for the nation,” noting that the U.S.-wide graduation rate is less than 80 percent. Almost all components also met another Pentagon goal of having 60 percent of entrants score in the top half on national aptitude tests, except for the Army Guard and Army Reserve, which narrowly missed at 59 percent and 58 percent, respectively. On the retention front, the main concern was a significant drop in Air Force enlisted retention, which fell from 99 percent of the first-term goal last year to 64 percent for FY 2008, to 84 percent for second-termers (versus 94 percent last year), and 79 percent for career airmen (versus 99 percent last year). However, part of the problem was that the Air Force was drawing down its force at the start of the fiscal year and therefore did not have strong retention incentives in place throughout the year. All other services exceeded enlisted retention goals except for Marine Corps first-termers (87 percent) and Navy second-termers (98 percent). Officer figures were not available. Plan (SBP) enrollees, and survivors. VA Retro Payments — This three-year joint effort by DFAS and the VA recalculated concurrent receipt and VA payments owed to disabled retirees because of multiple changes in concurrent receipt laws in recent years. The review of 230,000 retirees’ cases is complete, and all payment adjustments have been made. The affected retirees received a total of $174 million in retroactive payments. Paid-up SBP — As of October 2008, SBP payments ended for retirees who are at least age 70 and who have paid 30 years (360 cumulative months) of SBP premiums. This affects 137,000 retirees who saw their retired pay go up in their November 2008 checks. The net increase in the check won’t be quite as much as the premium, because retired pay is taxable, whereas the SBP premiums were deducted before taxes. This month, DFAS will display an “SBP counter” on a retiree’s Retiree Account Statement. It will show the total months of SBP premiums paid to date, so individuals can better project when their premiums will end. Individual Unemployability Payments — Pay Changes on Track DFAS makes progress on concurrent receipt and SBP. M 34 MILITARY OFFICER OAA and The Military Coalition received a special Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) update on that agency’s progress implementing various compensation fixes for tens of thousands of disabled retirees, Survivor Benefit Last year’s defense bill authorized full concurrent receipt, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005, for retirees designated as “unemployable” by the VA. But the effective date was delayed until October 2008. Those retirees saw their first monthly payment increase in November, and most also will be eligible for at least some additional retroactive payment. DFAS is notifying all who are due retroactive payment and says those payments should be completed by the end of February. Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance (SSIA) — Last year’s defense bill autho- rized a monthly SSIA of $50 (which will increase in annual $10 increments to $100 by 2013) to survivors who have VA survivor benefits deducted from their SBP. DECEMBER 2008
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