Portman pushes Air Force to provide pension benefits to retired veterans

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) is urging the U.S. Air Force to take immediate action to rectify paperwork processing delays that resulted in retired servicemembers not receiving their military pensions.

In a bipartisan letter sent to Air Force leaders on Nov. 8, Sen. Portman, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and other colleagues asked for a review of the processes for administering retirement benefits for servicemembers.

“According to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, a major information technology system malfunction in 2018 at the Department of the Air Force and Air Force Reserve Personnel Command (ARPC), created a backlog in processing of retirement paperwork,” the senators wrote in the letter to Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and Air Force Col. Kelli Smiley, commander of the Air Force Reserve Personnel Command (ARPC).

“It is our understanding that the delays in processing the backlog of service members’ military pensions was exacerbated by an outdated IT system and inadequate staffing levels,” the letter continued.

Those processing delays have impacted service members across the country, the senators said.

“While we understand that you have taken steps to eliminate the backlog, we are concerned that ARPC has not yet reached its goal of processing pending retirements 60 days in advance of a service member’s retirement,” the letter said.

The lawmakers asked what actions the Air Force has taken to prevent computation errors and major system malfunctions from occurring in the future, and also how the Air Force plans to reach its goal of processing pending retirement benefit applications.