Payroll error results in debt or refund for DoD employees

DoDEA was just informed that there was a programming error found within the Defense Civilian Payroll System (DCPS) when retroactive payroll corrections were processed for a prior year. Due to this error, the retirement contributions — employee and employer — were miscalculated for some employees across all DoD agencies and activities to include DoDEA.

The programming error affected approximately 37,000 DoD employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) with the average debt being $25.69.

Note: In some cases, this error caused a debt for some employees, and in other cases, employees may receive a refund.

Debt

Positive adjustments for employees whose retirement deduction needs to be increased, will result in a debt on pay period ending Nov. 5, 2022. Employees, or separated employees, with debts under $50 will be collected immediately as a routine adjustment under the authority of the Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA) of 1996.

For employees with debts over $50, a debt letter will be issued providing information on due process rights and will be sent via U.S. mail and/or posted on employee myPay accounts. Debt collections will begin after the due process period expires. Everyone will have the ability to make payments via pay.gov or by check to the Defense Finance Accounting Service (DFAS) Cleveland Disbursing Office, which will be specified on their individual debt letter.

Refund

Negative adjustments for employees due a refund, will be released to the employee on pay period ending Nov. 5, 2022. A refund will be part of your net pay and will be reflected on your Leave and Earnings Statement (LES).

DFAS apologizes for the inconvenience this has caused DoD employees.

DoDEA employees with questions or concerns, can submit a Global Service Desk (GSD) ticket and it will route to their local time and labor customer service representative (CSR) to work the issue.

Retired employees: If you need assistance, please contact CSR@DoDEA.edu.