October 23, 2011
What's Your COLA?   It's official. The 2012 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for military retired pay, SBP annuities, Social Security checks, and VA disability and survivor benefits will be 3.6%, effective December 1, 2011. It will first appear in the January checks, which will be paid on December 30.

But there are two categories of military retirees who won't receive a 3.6% COLA; those who retired during 2011 and REDUX Retirees.

 Servicemembers who retired during calendar year 2011 will receive a partial or no COLA for this year only, because they already received a January military pay raise which also raised their 2011 retired pay. Members who retired between Jan. 1, 2011, and Sept. 30, 2011, will receive a partial COLA based on the calendar quarter in which they retired. Jan.-Mar. retirees will receive 3.6%; Apr.-Jun. retirees, 2.4%; and Jul.-Sept. retirees 0.4%. Those who retire after Oct. 1, 2011, will see no COLA this year. Members retired during 2011 will receive full-year COLAs in future years.

REDUX Retirees: Servicemembers who entered service on or after Aug. 1, 1986 and elected to accept a $30,000 career retention bonus at 15 years of service agreed to accept reduced retired pay and COLAs as a trade-off for the bonus. REDUX retirees' COLAs are depressed 1% below the normal COLA rate, so they'll see a 2.6% COLA.

 Go to MOAA's COLA Watch page for more information.

October 10, 2011
Pay Date Change

A change in the law means you have received your September and will receive December pay a few days earlier this year.

The 2011 National Defense Authorization Act requires DFAS to process your pay by the first day of the month. When that day falls on a weekend or national holiday, the pay date is moved to the previous business day. In 2011, this means your payment normally scheduled for Oct. 3 was issued on Sept. 30 and your payment normally scheduled for Jan. 3, 2012, will be issued on Dec. 30, 2011.

As a result of the second payment in December, you’ll receive a total of 13 pay checks instead of the normal 12 in the 2011 tax year, which may increase your tax liability.

Because Jan. 1 is always a federal holiday, going forward you’ll always receive your January pay the previous December. So in 2012 and beyond, when we’ve fully transitioned to the new schedule, you will receive the normal 12 pay checks.

This change applies to retired pay, Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay, Combat Related Special Compensation, allotments, garnishments and court-ordered former spouse and child support payments. It does not affect annuity payments.

Tax Information
The extra payday may affect taxes for 2011 and may not satisfy your federal and state income taxes when you file your 2011 tax return.

September 16, 2011
MCAS Cherry Point Military Retiree Appreciation Day

MCAS Cherry Point's Retired Activities Office in conjunction with Healthnet Federal Services, Marine Corps Community Services, and Parker Automotive is hosting a Military Retiree Appreciation Day on October 1, 2011. It will be held at Miller's Landing on MCAS Cherry Point from 9:00 to 13:00.

For a copy of the flyer in PDF format click here..........

The agenda is as follows:

9:00 - Check in plus Health and Information Fair (health screenings, Veteran's Organizations, and other retiree related information booths)
10:30 - Move to main ballroom area
1040 - Welcome
1100 - Guest Speaker; MajGen Thomas Braaten
1115 - Command and several retiree service representatives
1130 - Lunch; Eastern North Carolina BBQ
1230 - Static displays and meet the Marines
1300 - Program Ends  

Due to space constraints, attendees must register prior for the event. Please register by doing one of the following:

• calling Gwen Williams at 466-4201

• use the fax form available here and fax to 466-3203

• email the information contained on the fax form above to either of the following email addresses

July 2, 2011
 No More Social Security Earnings Statement!

Published by Bud Schneeweis CFP® on June 14, 2011

Want some evidence that the federal budget crunch is hitting home? Wait by your mailbox for your annual Social Security Annual Earnings Statement. You’ll be waiting quite awhile.

In an unpublicized move, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has suspended delivery of the paper statement most wage earners in this country received about three months before their birthday each year. The Statement contained valuable information regarding covered earnings over your lifetime, your anticipated benefits amount at full retirement age and the data needed to explore other scenarios such as the expected reduced benefits available at the early retirement age of 62, the enhanced benefits amount available to those interested in waiting until age 70 to maximize their benefits, and the ability to extrapolate other scenarios in between. This information is no longer readily available.

A search of the Social Security Administration web site reveals only the following statement: In light of the current budget situation, we have suspended issuing Social Security Statements. You may be able to estimate your retirement benefit using our online Retirement Estimator.

I used the SSA’s Retirement Estimator. It does not provide the level of detail that the paper statement did. For one thing, there is no table of covered earnings over a lifetime. For another, you must enter your covered wages for the previous year. If you don’t know, the estimator returns nothing of value.

It’s not known why the SSA has kept a low profile about this issue, or whether it will resume mailing statements to at least those approaching retirement age if the budget picture brightens. However, it’s safe to say that for now, a valuable piece of retirement information is largely unavailable to those interested in planning ahead. With more Americans facing a dimmer retirement picture than they may have hoped and potentially relying even more heavily on their Social Security benefits, this lack of credible information will hurt.

June 24, 2011
Walgreens vs. TRICARE

On June 21, Walgreens pharmacy announced that it had broken off negotiations to renew a contract with TRICARE Retail Pharmacy's contractor, Express Scripts, Inc. Walgreens is the nation's largest retail drugstore chain, and the largest TRICARE network pharmacy.

What does that mean to TRICARE beneficiaries who use Walgreens? For the near term, Walgreens will continue to fill prescriptions for TRICARE patients at least until January 1, 2012. At that point, if both sides are unable to come to an agreement TRICARE Pharmacy benefits will no longer be available at Walgreens.

Should it come to that, one TRICARE official said, "99% of beneficiaries have another network provider within 5 miles of the Walgreens they now use, and on average, another pharmacy within our national network is within ½ mile of a Walgreens." It's too early to tell if Walgreens' break-off of negotiations is just a negotiating technique or if Walgreens has truly given up on renewing their contract with Express Scripts.

MOAA will be keeping a close eye on the situation.

May 12, 2011
TRICARE Young Adult Rolls Out

UPDATE: TRICARE officials have confirmed that there will be retroactive premium rebates for the cost differential for any already-purchased 2011 CHCBP coverage. Details still need to be worked out, but MOAA will keep you posted.

On Wednesday, DoD announced that enrollment in the TRICARE Young Adult (TYA) program is open, with coverage set to begin May 1.

The TYA program provides TRICARE coverage to dependent children of the uniformed services who meet the following requirements:

• Between the ages of 21 (or 23 for those enrolled in college) and 26

• Unmarried

• Not eligible for employer-sponsored health care

Premiums have been set at $186/month for TRICARE Standard. This is a per-person premium, so a family that wishes to enroll two qualifying children would pay $372 per month for both children. By law, these premiums are designed to cover the full cost of the delivered care, without any DoD subsidy.

For now, TRICARE Standard is the only available option.

TRICARE Prime coverage will be available starting in October and at a premium of $213/month per person.

Those who were eligible for the program, and have saved medical receipts since January 1, 2011, can receive retroactive coverage to that date, but will also be required to pay back premiums.

Although the premium structure for TYA is uniform for all enrollees, the cost-sharing and catastrophic cap will be based on the sponsor’s status (e.g., children of currently serving personnel would have a 20% Standard cost-share vs. 25% for children of retired personnel).

For more program details and enrollment applications, visit the TYA website.

April 21, 2011
The program to remove Social Security numbers (SSNs) from military ID cards continues to roll along.   The program actually began in 2009 and will continue through 2013 and become standard operating procedure from then on. Do not rush to your closest ID card office to replace your cards. All ID cards will be replaced over the normal course of updating cards as they expire. Those with indefinite expiration dates (INDEF) may get a new card by making an appointment at your ID card office. See this web site to find your closest ID card office by zip code: http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/rsl/.

The program is planned to remove SSNs over time in 3 separate phases. Phase I started in 2009 with the removal of dependents' printed SSNs from their ID cards. The sponsors' SSNs remain for now. Phase II starts June 2011. This time all printed SSNs will be removed from the cards. The SSNs will be replaced by DOD ID numbers. Phase III is expected to begin in late 2012. This is the final phase. SSNs will be removed from the barcodes on the back of ID cards. At this point, no SSN will be on ID cards in any format.

Make sure you bring 2 forms of ID when you go to the ID card office. See this site for types of ID, http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf, and scroll to page 5. For those of you getting close to age 65, note your expiration date is just prior to your 65th birthday.

March 29, 2011
Government Shutdown and You    Almost five full months after the start of FY2011, legislators continue to battle over the FY2011 budget. In the interim, the government has been kept running through a series of short-term continuing resolutions. The current resolution expires on April 8, which has federal agencies preparing for a possible government shutdown if legislators of both parties can't bridge the huge gulf between their proposals for federal spending cuts. The last federal shutdown happened in FY1996 during the Clinton administration. It lasted 21 days and caused some 284,000 federal employees to be furloughed. The President, presidential appointees, members of Congress, certain legislative branch employees, military people, and federal employees deemed "excepted" aren't subject to a furlough. "Excepted" employees are required to work during a shutdown because they're protecting life or property or performing other essential functions.

What exactly will happen in the event of a shutdown? Unfortunately, most federal agencies are being very coy about releasing that information.

Social Security: Checks for current eligibles will continue, but processing of new applications will be likely suspended.

Military and federal civilian retired pay, survivor annuities: DFAS and the Office of Personnel Management won't give specific answers, but we believe checks to current beneficiaries will continue. The Social Security answer raises at least some question whether new retired pay and survivor accounts would be started.

VA disability compensation and survivor benefits: The VA isn't talking on the subject. But a 2008 Congressional Research Service report said during previous shutdowns "multiple services [for veterans] were curtailed, ranging from health and welfare to finance and travel."

Pay for active duty military and drilling Guard/Reserve members: Again, DFAS won't give a straight answer. We know the troops will still be on duty. But some media reports have indicated they won't be paid if the shutdown encompasses a payday. When MOAA contacted DoD for confirmation, we were told an official release has not been issued by the Secretary of Defense.

Government services: During the 1996 shutdown, national parks were closed, passport applications weren't processed, toxic waste cleanups were stopped, and many federal contractors weren't paid, among other things.

One more thing: after previous shutdowns, pay was approved retroactively for the furloughed employees.

MOAA thinks it's indefensible that government agencies refuse to tell worried employees and citizens what will happen to federal compensation and other programs in the event of a shutdown. We'll let you draw your own conclusions whether budget brinksmanship politics make it convenient to give the impression that consequences might be even more severe than many expect.

March 9, 2011
Why Your Federal tax Witholding Went Up   The reason for the withholding tax increase stems from the Making Work Pay (MWP) tax relief program that ended in 2010. The MWP program temporarily decreased tax withholding rates in checks in 2009 and 2010. This was to stimulate the economy by putting more take home pay in your pocket. The program wasn’t extended for 2011 so the tax tables reverted back to the regular tax withholding rate tables. Higher withholding, lower take home pay.

 This is not a tax increase. You won’t pay more taxes. It means you have more taxes taken out of your pay and you’ll could get a larger tax refund next year. If the withholding tax increase causes you problems, you can always submit an IRS form W-4 to DFAS or your pay agency to change your withholding amount. Changes can also be made to DFAS using the on-line ‘My Pay’ system. Technically, the MWP provision was only meant for paychecks of working people. The catch was that DFAS uses the same tax tables and pay systems for retiree checks as it does for currently serving checks. It didn’t make sense for DFAS to jump through hoops to change their pay systems to accommodate this temporary tax program.

March 3, 2011
“Veterans Affairs Services” Group

‎The following is an advisory sent out by the National Guard Bureau (NGB) in reference to a group called “Veterans Affairs Services.”

An organization called Veterans Affairs Services (VAS) is providing benefit and general information on VA and gathering personal information on veterans. This organization is not affiliated with VA in any way.

Websites with the name “VA services” immediately after the “www” ARE NOT part of the Department of Veterans Affairs; the real VA website ends in.gov. If approached or called, do not offer them any information concerning yourself or data on other veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not randomly call veterans, nor does it ask veterans for information which it does not already have. If you have not dealt with the VA previously and in person, then you receive a call from someone saying they are with the VA or something similar sounding, hang up the phone.

Do not respond to emails which suggest that they are from the VA. The VA never conducts official business nor asks for personal information by email.

VAS may be gaining access to military personnel through their close resemblance to the VA name and seal. NGB Legal Counsel has requested that the NGB Provost Marshal Office coordinate with DoD to inform military installations, particularly mobilization sites, of this group and their lack of affiliation or endorsement by VA to provide any services.