Defense Finance & Accounting Service (DFAS) is saying that many retirees who have VA pay their full or partial Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) payment may be getting an erroneous bill from the Treasury Department.
Currently, there are four methods of paying for your SBP coverage:
- Deductions from your retired pay
- Deductions from your CRSC Pay
- Deductions from your VA pay
- Direct remittance
- Paid Up Status
A change in the billing agency from DFAS to the Department of the Treasury Centralized Receivables Service is the cause of the mixup. Previously DFAS sent the monthly bills to those who choose direct remittance as their payment method, or those whose VA pay isn't enough to cover the monthly SBP premium.
Unless you have made a change to your VA remittance for your monthly SBP premium, VA will still pay your recurring monthly premium amount (whether that is the full or a partial amount), so you don't need to pay the monthly premium amount shown on the Centralized Receivables Service bill.
DFAS and VA are working with the Treasury to fix the problem, but DFAS warns that you may get an erroneous bill next month as well.
In April of this year a new law went into effect requiring DFAS to deduct SBP premiums from CRSC pay. There is no indication that this issue is related to that change.
If you have any questions, you should contact DFAS directly at 800-321-1080 M - F 8 AM - 5 PM Eastern.
