Army has stop-loss pay backlog, delays claims
Published: December 17, 2010
The Army is wading through a backlog of about 16,000 retroactive stop-loss claims that will take months to clear, an Army official said.
If you were stop-lossed between September 2001 and September 2008, you are eligible for up to $500 for every month you were kept beyond your initial separation date. Surviving spouses of stop-lossed troops are eligible to collect the money due their servicemember.
Before the backlog, claims were being processed in a few days, but now they will take up to 90 days to process.
The program is set to end Saturday unless Congress decides to extend the deadline again. It was originally supposed to end in October, but it has been extended twice because the services have had a hard time reaching the 145,000 people believed to be eligible for retroactive stop-loss pay, of whom 120,000 are soldiers or their surviving spouses.
In September, a mailing went out to people the Army believed were stop-lossed who had not yet applied, said Maj. Roy Whitley, who is in charge of the Army’s program. That led to a flood of new applications. Many people submitted claims that did not include all of the necessary documentation, and they will take longer to process.
Even if the pay program ends Saturday, the Army will need months to process the surge of claims, said Whitley, who has sent an e-mail to people whose claims are pending tell them the process will take time.
Servicemembers stop-lossed after September 2008 are also eligible for compensation.
To find out more, they can send an e-mail to one of the two following e-mail addresses:
Active: Hrc.epmd.enlistedstoplosspay@conus.army.mil
Reserve:USARC_STOPLOSS_PAY@usarc.army.mil
