13 percent of eligible vets seek stop-loss pay - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

13 percent of eligible vets seek stop-loss pay

Only 13 percent of the Army veterans believed to be eligible for retroactive stop-loss pay have applied for the special entitlement program funded by Congress with $534 million last year.

The retroactive pay is belated compensation to former and current service members who were involuntarily extended on active duty because of stop-loss from Sept. 11, 2001, through Sept. 30, 2008.

The program pays eligible applicants $500 for every month they were involuntarily retained beyond their contracted terms of service.

So far, payments have averaged $4,500 per approved application.

Personnel officials believe as many as 120,000 Army veterans are eligible, a figure that represents most of the 170,000 members of all services that Pentagon officials estimate may qualify.

The application window for the program opened Oct. 21, but as of early February only 16,000 former soldiers had applied, according to Maj. Ray Whitley, project manager for the Army’s retroactive stop-loss pay task force.

Of the applications received, 5,000 have been processed by the Army and forwarded to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service for review and payment.

So far, 2,500 Army applicants have been paid, Whitley said.

Application processing, originally snarled by administrative problems, was further complicated in December when Congress passed a law that prohibits the special pay to applicants who received a retention bonus while they were in stop-loss status.

At the time that measure took effect, about 2,000 Army applications were being processed by DFAS and were returned to the service to verify eligibility.

Whitley said 1,800 of those applications were cleared for payment, while the others were denied or are still being verified.

Claims that were approved and paid before Dec. 19 are not subject to the bonus restrictions of the new law.

In authorizing the retroactive stop-loss pay program last June, Congress stipulated that all claims must be received by the services Oct. 1, 2010, even though the processing of many cases will continue well beyond that date.

To apply for retroactive pay, access http://www.stoplosspay.army.mil/default.aspx.