Final Pay - Your Last Active Duty Check and other Retirement Pay Considerations

Final Pay Check

I have to tell you the truth, I was a little confused when I came out of the Finance Office about my separation pay.  DFAS says the following on its web-page with reference to your final paycheck in the military:

Regular pay is suspended during the month of separation to ensure that no overpayment exists. On the member's Date of Separation (DOS), the servicing finance office will have a payment sent to the member's bank account using the EFT process. From DOS through the next 20 days, the member's pay account will be monitored and additional pay action will be made for the final pay computation as required. Post separation pay audits are conducted regularly and may identify residual payments that are due to the member. If this occurs, DFAS (or in limited instances, the member's servicing finance officer) will pay the residual payments via paper check to the address that the service member provided during separation processing.


Below is the information that was given to me three months before my separation date, which is supposed to be 30Nov18:

Final Pay Check
1.  Your account will be suspended 10 days prior to your separation date.  If you separate on the 15th or 30th/31st of the month you will not receive your mid-month or EOM paycheck, you will receive a final pay from the Finance Office a week after date of separation
(This sounds confusing to me.  At first I thought that if I separated on 30Nov18, then I wouldn't get my mid-month pay.  Right now that is my separation date, and I checked on the MYPAY web-site and I'm scheduled to receive my mid-month pay, so maybe that was my misinterpretation of the document.  But I asked the lady who gave the brief and she seemed sure that I wouldn't receive my mid-month pay either.)

2.  Finance Office will pay 80% of the final pay on the Date of Separation which will show up in your current bank a week after Date of Separation.
(To me this means I not receive any money on 30Nov18, but on/about 10Dec18, which kind of sucks because I have mortgages to pay.  We'll see.)

3. The remaining 20% is held in case of any outstanding debts, and will be paid 30 to 45 days after Date of Separation.

Accrued Leave
My Finance Office told me that I can sell any unused accrued leave up to 60 days if character of discharge is 'Honorable' or 'General'.  For each day or leave accrued, the Soldier will receive one day's basic pay minus the standard 25% for federal tax and any applicable state tax.  Also, I was told that this 'sold leave' money would be available in my final pay, 80% of which will be available on 10Dec18.  Again, we'll see.

Terminal Leave and PTDY
I was told that while on terminal leave/ PTDY I will continue to receive my pay and I will receive BAH for the location where I am going on leave starting the first day of leave.

Retirement Pay
After speaking with my peers, every one of them who retired starting receiving their retirement pay beginning at the end of the next month.  It's important to note that Retirement pay only comes once a month at the end of the month, there is no mid-month retirement pay.

Veterans Disability Compensation Benefit
As I discussed in my post on the Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program, most people who take advantage of the BDD program begin getting their payment benefit as soon as 1-3 months.  However, if you file after you separate, then you can expect it to take 1-3 months after your last appointment.

Summary
In summary, I hope to separate in about 15 days and I'll let you know in future posts how the final pay is actually working for me.

Good Luck!!

RR