July 14, 2006

SQUEAKY AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about being squeaky? Something funny just happened. My husband tried to settle his travel pay when we got here, and Finance mailed us a letter saying we owe the government $800. That certainly wasn't right, so he went in and tried to fix it. They came back with another letter that said that the Army owes us $600. That's not right either since we got a travel advance; in actuality the Army owes us about $50. My husband understands how this stuff works, so he went in and walked the Finance person through it. She called DFAS and they all agreed that the Army owes us something like $63. So a few days later we get a direct deposit for $675. Ha! My husband said that the system will work itself out eventually and take the money back, so it's not worth his time to go back in to the office and try to get the correct amount. In the meantime, he put the money in our money market so we can at least milk a little interest off it!

The government does the best they can, but their best is an idiot.

Posted by Sarah at July 14, 2006 06:14 PM | TrackBack
Comments

It's because that this always seems to happen, I have refused to take an advance for a long time. It even happened when I was paid an extra month of imminent danger pay. They took back too much, gave me back too little, then took it all back, then gave me too much....

I think there must be a conspiracy going on in Finance. When we were getting ready to leave Iraq, a soldier from the Finance unit came over and step-by-step, told us how to fill out our travel voucher. When we got to Ft Lewis, we were told that they were all done wrong and we had to redo them. They then got kicked back by DFAS because it was right the first time. What can you do but laugh?

R

Posted by: R1 at July 14, 2006 09:31 PM