{"id":28690,"date":"2023-05-08T21:42:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T21:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/05\/08\/navy-error-upends-pay-for-more-than-1200-retirees\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:59:26","slug":"navy-error-upends-pay-for-more-than-1200-retirees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2023\/05\/08\/navy-error-upends-pay-for-more-than-1200-retirees\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy error upends pay for more than 1,200 retirees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After decades of military service, retired Navy Cmdr. Stephanie Murdock went to check her retiree pay statement in early April and was shocked to find that she was going to be receiving $1,118 less each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cut troubled Murdock, but perhaps not as much as the lack of explanation from the Navy or the Defense Finance Accounting Service<\/a>, which processes military and retiree pay based on information provided by the services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not okay,\u201d she told Navy Times. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to lower my pay and eventually tell me why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murdock, who retired in July 2022, nosed around DFAS\u2019s self-help sections to try and figure it out early last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, she found her answer: The Navy had incorrectly calculated her service time and sent the wrong information to DFAS, resulting in the abrupt pay cut she now faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murdock isn\u2019t alone. Navy officials confirmed that \u201ca software issue\u201d resulted in incorrect service time calculations for 1,283 Navy retirees, errors that span from August 2019 to this past February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When retired Navy Cmdr. Stephanie Murdock saw her retiree pay was going to be drastically cut, she took it upon herself to sleuth around the Defense Finance Accounting Service web site and eventually got this automated answer. (Image courtesy of Stephanie Murdock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Navy Personnel Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Rick Chernitzer attributed the retiree pay error to \u201ca software issue\u201d that has since been fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been no more reported issues with the data since that time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials said the issue popped up on the Navy\u2019s radar in November, when a retiree reported an overpayment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Navy provided preliminary notification of an error and (DFAS) is also contacting those affected retirees and members of the Fleet Reserve, notifying them of the overpayment and corrective measures underway to correct their retirement or retainer pay,\u201d Chernitzer said in an email to Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Monday, a month after her initial shock at the decrease, Murdock said she had not been contacted by DFAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials said affected retirees can learn more about debt waiver options by going to this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, after receiving two Navy letters but zero information as to what happened, how much she might owe or how she can dispute an error that is not her fault, Murdock said she has lost trust in the Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The software issue at blame fell within the Navy\u2019s Standard Integrated Personnel Systems, or NSIPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NSIPS is also to blame for the Navy prematurely awarding four years of service credit to 160 Navy doctors and dentists<\/a>, a mistake that allowed 95 of those members to retire after just 16 years of service instead of the required 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n