Troops are having a difficult time getting answers about their paychecks after some soldiers, sailors and Marines say they were shorted after paychecks came out Oct. 15, said Raleigh Duttweiler, chief impact officer.
“People are telling us they're either getting voicemails saying that the office is closed or they're not getting anything at all,” she said
More than 150 members of the National Military Family Association report being underpaid last week, some by as much as $2,000. The average loss was more than $600, Duttweiler said.
“Most military families are struggling to get by. We experience food insecurity. One quarter of military families struggle to put food on the table. A quarter of military families don't have more than $500 in a savings account,” she said.
The group, which advocates for servicemembers and their families, has not received a response from the Pentagon, Duttweiler said. A small number of troops were also notified that they would not receive their pay until this week.
President Donald Trump announced over social media the weekend before the Wednesday deadline that the Pentagon would shift money to pay the 1.3 million active duty troops.
Regular drills and training have been suspended due to the government shutdown, but members of the National Guard who were on active duty — anywhere from the U.S. border to assignments around the world — would also receive pay, according to a Pentagon official.
Surveying its members, the National Military Family Association found that some members had received the proper amounts, while a dozen families received a notification that they would be paid this week instead of last week.
The group could not find a consistent reason for the discrepancies. A number of line items make up a normal military paycheck, including housing, a uniform allowance and pay differential for being deployed, but no single line item was missing from the pay stubs, she said.
“There is no rhyme or reason that we can tell on our end for who was affected and who wasn't,” she said.
Roughly 400 people have reached out to the group so far to report how their paychecks were handled. Members from each of the services, including the Coast Guard, reported issues. Unlike the rest of the armed forces, which are paid by the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard is paid by the Department of Homeland Security. Anecdotally, more members of the National Guard who listed themselves as being on active duty responded to the survey and reported getting the work payment, she said.
Among the problems, troops report that the amount listed on their paystub, called a Leave and Earns Statement (LES), did not match what they were actually paid. A handful of troops were also overpaid as much as $2,000, which causes a separate issue, Duttweiler said.
“I have a good friend whose family got $400 more for no apparent reason,” she said. “They have no idea where this extra $400 came from. But what the government gives you, the government will plan to take away on the government's own timeframe, so you better keep that sitting in your account for them to grab whenever they see fit.”
Except for the Coast Guard, active duty members of the military have never missed a paycheck during a government shutdown. Congress typically passes legislation which allows them to be paid, while other government workers are either furloughed or working with the promise of being paid after the shutdown ends. That has not happened during this time. It is still unclear what mechanism the Trump administration used to move $6.5 billion to pay the troops last week.
The next paycheck is due at the end of October.
