Dependent Recertification - Who's got the back-story?

[Dupe]

For the first time in the Air Force (10+ years now), I have to go to Finance to certify my dependent status by taking them marriage certificates (and/or birth certificates for those who were issued spawn). Apparently, this is an AF-wide move, and they won't take email copies... you have to see them in person. Who has the story on why we're going through this dance of inefficiency? Obviously, there was either some colossal fraud or somebody ordered an AF-wide investigation. @Finance Guy... where are you?

[Chuck17]

The AF is behind the times - other services have been doing this for a while now. And believe it or not the army caught people with fakes, making money for being married, having kids, etc.

This isn't much of a shock that we are playing catch up.

Chuck

[Duck]

How did you all get notified of this? I haven't seen anything at my base.

[stract]

the email floating around DM says it's related to BAH. They're doing an audit for those claiming "w/dependent" to make sure they're getting what they should be getting.

[sputnik]

The AF is behind the times - other services have been doing this for a while now. And believe it or not the army caught people with fakes, making money for being married, having kids, etc.

This isn't much of a shock that we are playing catch up.

Chuck

Isn't that what DEERS is for? I seem to recall dropping off birth and marriage certificates. And a bunch of other stuff.

[FLY6584]

What about those of us that are deployed? Is my BAH going to change because I can't get them a copy of my son's birth certificate? What a joke.

[Azimuth]

What about those of us that are deployed? Is my BAH going to change because I can't get them a copy of my son's birth certificate? What a joke.

My base told me that if I didn't do it by the end of this month they would change my BAH to single rate.

[FLY6584]

My base told me that if I didn't do it by the end of this month they would change my BAH to single rate.

Standard Air Force bull shit. Zero foresight before implementing life affecting policies. So over this organization.

[Breckey]

The briefing we got was that a group of socials was assigned a month and you had during that month to recertify. If you are TDY or deployed during your specified month then you would have 30 days from the return to validate your dependent BAH.

[Dupe]

The AF is behind the times - other services have been doing this for a while now. And believe it or not the army caught people with fakes, making money for being married, having kids, etc.

This isn't much of a shock that we are playing catch up.

Chuck

I would think an audit of 1-3% of the force per year would be more cost effective than making every single person go to finance in person.

[C17Driver]

This was mandated by law...I think the 2012 or 2013 NDAA directed the requirement (not 100% positive if it was one of those...but thank congress in any case).

Whether or not you can email the documents is base specific. The base I'm currently at allows the documents to be scanned and emailed.

[ComingLeft]

How does a marriage certificate or birth certificate prove your dependents live with you? I think my parents still have a copy of my birth certificate. A tax return has more relevance, but still not fool proof.

Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

[contraildash]

This is dumb. They may catch a few stupid folks, but the smart ones that are gaming the system will just bring in the certificate and that will be that. It's not like your marriage certificate gets shredded when you get divorced, or birth certificates destroyed when one dies.

I bet less than 1% of the Air Force is cheating on BAH? What do y'all think?

[hispeed7721]

I bet less than 1% of the Air Force is cheating on BAH? What do y'all think?

Probably less than that, but my money has it AFPC will find one or two and make it seem like they've saved the day just to try and appear relevant/necessary.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Chuck17]

Dudes I hear ya. Especially the DEERS comment Sputnik. I agree.

You've all been in the AF long enough, you know what this is... It's a self accomplishing audit. We all know how staffs work, we see it daily: Pass as much work down to the wings as possible. Demand immediate accomplishment of said work so all in the wing have to jump through their asses to comply. This one has teeth because there's money involved.

But it should be no surprise. Sportbitching authorized...

Cheers,

Chuck

[sputnik]

I can absolutely guarantee any amount of money saved by catching the one dude who's cheating on his BAH (though I'm still unsure how this will catch anyone) will be dwarfed by the metric ass-ton of man hours lost by having the entire Air Force stop what they are doing, find the documentation, go to FSS and be immediately and efficiently helped.

Sort of made up the last part.

Kind of impressive really, someone measurably reduced the productivity of the entire USAF active duty work force...for an OPR bullet.

[Dupe]

This was mandated by law...I think the 2012 or 2013 NDAA directed the requirement (not 100% positive if it was one of those...but thank congress in any case).

Congress typically doesn't dream this stuff up themselves. There had to be a good idea fairy that got to one of the service's legislative liaison office.

I can absolutely guarantee any amount of money saved by catching the one dude who's cheating on his BAH (though I'm still unsure how this will catch anyone) will be dwarfed by the metric ass-ton of man hours lost by having the entire Air Force stop what they are doing, find the documentation, go to FSS ...

With the emergence of big data analytics, I would think it's relatively easy to compare DEERS records with state marriage/divorce/birth/court records. Rather than taking the gorilla approach and looking at every single member claiming dependent BAH(at a huge efficiency burden to all of us), I think we could have attacked this smarter.

We should have figured out the risk demographics for BAH fraud and done a sampling of electronic records based on risk. For example, the high risk category gets a 5% sample rate while the low risk group gets a 1% sample. Members who don't pass the records check then get to bring in supporting docs to back them up. Those who can't back-up their BAH claims get ramrodded prison-style. The mere threat and knowledge that there's a continuous auditing process will deter most folks. That's how the IRS does it. Did I just say the IRS is efficient? I did.

[pawnman]

I guess it turns out I was ahead of the curve...they made me submit this during my last deployment in 2012.

[FBomb]

Revalidation fun coming to a base near you,..

https://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/474979/airmen-must-revalidate-dependents.aspx

[Bobby]

Revalidation fun coming to a base near you,..

https://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/474979/airmen-must-revalidate-dependents.aspx

If only there was an already existing DoD database that contained authorized dependent data...smh

[Bender]

I have too much time on my hands, which generally means I have some other important thing I could be doing that I don't really want to do. Having said that, I would have written that article slightly differently. Public Affairs would be a difficult career field for me...here is what I read when I clicked on that link (I'm sorry I did that):

Over the next 269 days, every Airman across the entire Air Force will be forced to redo work they have already done based on a law we’ve known about for over 1,600 days. We were a little busy working our way through all the shit the Military Commissions Act of 2009 was doing to our operations in Guantanamo Bay to get to this until now. These redundant actions will allow the Air Force to validate that an audit means that these records are “fully auditable”. It is unclear what it will mean if this audit does not prove this theory, but considering this category of money amounts to $5.4 billion, the Air Force is hoping it does.

Senior leaders in charge want everyone to know that being not “audit compliant” does not mean there is a problem, it means that we “lack the required documentation for our spending” to know if there is a problem. There is a difference, it’s important that you know that. The goal of making everyone do things again is to be sure that we have this documentation and that we can audit these expenditures if NDAA 2016 makes us. The Air Force, at this time, does not intend to actually conduct this audit, only to ensure it is auditable. There is a difference, it’s important that you know that.

Do not bring any documentation prior to being notified just because you think it is a convenient time for you to do so. The special super-duper scanner at the finance offices will not function correctly if you do not provide the paperwork at the time and choosing of the Air Force. Airmen will have 30 days once notified via email; hopefully, this will be enough to overload the system enough separate times to create errors across the entire data set that can be later used as an explanation should the audit prove the data is not “fully auditable”. However, the official story will be to avoid “unnecessary duplication of effort”. The Air Force also plans to implement a “Strategic Delay” somewhere in the middle of this process to assess the auditability of the audit. Once the process is completed, this documentation will be stored for longer than the current practice of 6 years in order to meet requirements, however, this will not prevent the need to re-audit and members will need to re-accomplish this task should a future NDAA require an an actual audit, not just an audit to prove auditability.

From the highest level, the Air Force needs every Airmen to know: Your finance-related documentation is your responsibility, not just the finance office’s. Even if you turn in all the required documentation, check your pay to ensure it is correct, and notify them if your personal situation changes, you may still be required to re-accomplish tasks to ensure that what you have provided is still in your possession. If you have lost your marriage certificate or any other financial documentation, do not expect finance to have it, go through official state channels to obtain another one, and whatever you do, do not attempt to recreate any documents in crayon.

The Air Force plans to audit everything. Did you save the receipt for that pencil? Units will have until next year to ensure that they have receipts for every process, procedure and transaction that spends Air Force money. Any accounts valued at less that $5.4 billion will be handled directly by AFPC.

Bendy

Edited March 19, 2014 by Bender

[17D_guy]

At my location they're actually taking scanned documents sent to one of the Finance Amn's NIPR email address, at any time.

I asked how that was legal/met intent of the audit. Bendy's comment about "being auditable" makes this whole fiasco make slightly more sense.

That said I'm awaiting the PII spillage problems from our implementation.

Bendy is also correct.. there's only 1 scanner.

Edited March 20, 2014 by 17D_guy

[Toro]

Below is a sample of what they're looking for. The funny thing is that they're asking folks to be proactive and send it in early based in this general mass email (a specific email from finance will supposedly follow). I like how they say you can send it via email...but your 594 has to have a wet signature...huh?

If you email, make sure you cc yourself for six months from now when finance fucks it up and loses it.

A military-wide recertification of those service members and their families receiving Basic Allowances for Housing has begun this month and extends through the end of this year. In order to meet the requirements of FIAR (Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness), the 82d Comptroller Squadron has been directed to accomplish a one-time effort to ensure we have an Financial Services Office (FSO or RPO) certified AF Form 594 on file for every member who claims a dependent for BAH purposes.

All active duty Air Force members who receive with-dependent rate BAH or BAH-Diff will be directed to recertify their entitlement sometime in calendar year 2014. This is a separate, one-time recertification process and is unaffected by routine recertifications due to PCS, separation/retirement, or 4-year requirements. Members who receive without-dependent or partial (dorm residents not receiving BAH-Diff) rate BAH will NOT be required to recertify entitlement as part of this one-time recertification.

Recertification requires the member to submit a completed (to include wet signature) AF Form 594 and proof of entitlement. While normal recertification procedures require original or certified copies of backup documentation, for this recertification effort a copy is acceptable if the original or certified copy is unavailable or submitted via email. The following backup documentation as proof of entitlement is required:

a. Marriage license for civilian spouse.

b. Birth certificate for child(ren) in member's custody.

c. Divorce decree, legal separation agreement, court order, or notarized child support agreement for dependent child(ren) not in member's custody.

d. Approved secondary dependency letter from DFAS for secondary dependents.

All personnel serviced by 82d CPTS will be individually contacted to recertify entitlement during 2014. Members must respond within 30 calendar days of contact in order to continue to receive with-dependent rate BAH or BAH-Diff.

Members are highly encouraged to contact 82d CPTS for early recertification prior to departing for extended TDY, deployment, or PCS. Members who fail to meet the 30 day suspense will no longer receive with-dependent rate BAH effective the suspense date given at time of notification. Members will NOT receive retroactive BAH upon later certification unless their commander certifies the suspense was not met due to circumstances which were beyond the member's control.