An article in todays Washington Post (and featured on MSNBC)discusses the pay system being used for the Army as being a complete mess. They have been trying to update their computer system since the 1990's but have been "unsuccessful". 90% of soliders serving in Iraq or Afghanistan have had at least one pay problem. Those being hit the hardest are the injured who are returning home to find their credit ratings are no longer good.
"Part of the problem is that the government's computerized pay system is designed to "maximize debt collection" and has operated without a way to keep bills from going to the wounded"
Take a look at what they are being charged for!
"After he left the hospital, his financial trouble started. First, his wages were garnished. "I was missing car payments and phone bill payments and everything else," he said. Then, when he was leaving the military, shortly before Christmas, his debts were laid out: $2,200 in travel related to follow-up hospital treatment, $2,400 for combat-related pay he should not have collected and several hundred dollars more for military gear that went missing after his injury.
The full force of his debt hit as he was trying to get to his family in New York for the holidays. "I had a quarter-tank of gas, three cats in my vehicle and no money whatsoever," he said."
"He owed $646 for housing: nine days of rent, damaged window blinds, a broken refrigerator tray."
But one quote really sums it all up.
""They call and they call and they call," he said. "They're nasty to me." Sometimes, he said, he feels outraged. "I don't know how much you want from me. I already gave you one arm and a part of a leg.""
Financial friendly fire