As the shutdown enters its fourth week and the administration searches for ways to pay troops at the end of the month, hundreds of service members have reported receiving incorrect pay or no pay at all during the mid-month pay cycle — and so far, none of those discrepancies have been corrected.
Out of 369 military families that reached out to the National Military Family Association, an advocacy group that represents service members and their families nationwide, 164 reported being underpaid — some by as little as $148 and others by as much as $2,000.
Raleigh Smith Duttweiler, a military spouse and chief impact officer at the National Military Family Association, said most affected families were underpaid by about $600 to $800.
“A quarter of military families don’t have more than $500 in a savings account. We are not exactly a demographic set up to absorb a missed paycheck and keep working,” Smith Duttweiler told Federal News Network. “I don’t know about you, but I could not absorb a $600 error in my paycheck and then also still put food on the table for three kids. It wouldn’t happen.”
About 55 families said they were not paid at all.
“There was no [leave and earning statement], there was nothing. There was pay on Oct. 1. They still showed up at work on Oct. 15 and 16, but zero pay,” Smith Duttweiler said.
Meanwhile, 50 families said they were overpaid — some by $400, while one family said they received three times its regular paycheck.
Twelve families were not paid even though their leave and earnings statements indicated a pay date of either Oct. 23, Oct. 24 or Oct. 25.
And most families who reported pay discrepancies said their leave and earnings statement did not match the amount that showed up in their bank accounts.
“That was a real concern for people right away, because when you’re trying to go back and get the money that you rightfully earned, your pay stub says you got it, but your bank says you didn’t. It doesn’t help that all these things don’t match,” Smith Duttweiler said.
“I have not heard anybody tell me that their pay has gotten corrected. Nobody has seen a correction, nobody has seen the funds magically appear. And that they have no place to go except the aid societies,” she added.
The Defense Department did not respond to questions about the number of troops affected, what is causing these discrepancies, or what steps DoD is taking to fix these issues and what guidance is being provided to service members during this time.
Smith Duttweiler said the Defense Department has instructed service members to contact their finance office or notify their commanding officer if there is an issue with their pay.
“I don’t talk about my finances with my boss. And I certainly don’t think most Americans do either. I’ve consistently heard from families that they try to get in touch with finance, but nobody is answering. I think that’s the biggest concern, is that people don’t feel like they have an outlet to go to,” Smith Duttweiler said.
Mounting debt from PCS moves
Families who were underpaid or not paid at all were especially concerned about bills on auto-pay, such as rent, water or car payments, which would be pulled regardless of whether their paycheck arrived.
But beyond their monthly expenses, the shutdown has also exacerbated other financial issues for military families.
Families still carrying significant debt from this summer’s Permanent Change of Station cycle had expected to receive reimbursements on Oct. 1, Oct. 15 or Nov. 1. Instead, they are now on the hook for another month of credit card interest payments ranging from $200 to $400 on expenses they fronted for their move.
“The government doesn’t pay you back your APR,” Smith Duttweiler said.
The advocacy group also heard from families who were in the middle of a PCS move when stop-move orders were issued. These families had already charged moving expenses to their credit cards and now fear their pay may be disrupted before they can cover those costs.
One family in the middle of their PCS move is living out of a hotel because the housing inspector has been furloughed — the family won’t be able to get their on-base housing until the government reopens.
“If you have ever done a PCS, which so many people that I talk to on the Hill never have, you have no idea how much money is sitting there in credit card debt to begin with. You are already absorbing the move. Nobody is going to look at you and say, ‘I see you have $18,000 unpaid in the last three months. Let’s definitely give you more credit,’” Smith Duttweiler said.
“And sure, maybe Federal Credit Union can step in or USAA, even though they had people being turned away, and it’s people who had bad credit — it’s those service members who most desperately needed the paycheck, those who count on this pay to get by. But it is not up to our banks to pay us. The aid societies can step in and food pantries can help out all they want, but at the end of the day it’s your employer who pays the bills,” she added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested last week that service members will receive their end-of-the-month paychecks but said that if the shutdown continues, the administration won’t be able to pay troops by Nov. 15.
“I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by November 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid,” Bessent said on Face the Nation.
Senate Republicans tried to advance a bill last week that would ensure troops are paid during the shutdown, but Democrats blocked the measure and instead backed a broader legislation that would guarantee pay for all federal workers.
Legal experts said the administration could, in future budget requests, ask Congress to forward-fund military pay — a mechanism already used for certain accounts that the administration wouldn’t want to be interrupted. Instead of funding military pay fiscal year by fiscal year, it could be funded on a calendar-year basis.
“There would still be money for the next three months to cover it. That’s a perfectly sensible thing. To the best of my knowledge, neither this administration nor its predecessors have proposed that,” David Super, the Carmack Waterhouse professor of law and economics at Georgetown University Law Center told Federal News Network.
Smith Duttweiler said she has been hearing from families again and again in the past two weeks that they’re questioning whether or not service is even a choice that works for their family.
“For the first time, we have people saying, ‘We’ve always loved this life, but I don’t know that I’d recommend it to my kids when I don’t know that it’s a steady way for them to make ends meet,’” Smith Duttweiler said.
“This is a hard life, but it’s a good life, and it’s one you feel called to do. But you don’t feel called to do it without being able to feed your kids. Families are caught in the middle as this last sort of political bargaining chip right now. And that’s not how we care for our military. It’s not how we should be caring for our own security,” she added.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.
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