The Air Force and the Department of Defense offer important tools for those contemplating retirement and those that have retired from Active or Reserve Duty. These include myPay, a program that allows retired military members to monitor and manage their retired military pay account, and to also ensure that information regarding annuitants of the Survivor Benefit Program is current and accurate.
MyAirForceBenefits focuses on benefits and includes but is not limited to Survivor Benefits Planning and Casualty and Survivor Assistance. The site maintains a library of more than 150 fact sheets regarding benefits.
The official website of the Air Force Personnel Center, myPers, includes features of interest to retired military and their family members, e.g., information about ID cards and Retiree Management, both located under Career Management on the HOME page. Also, from the HOME page, there is a direct link to the Air Force Retiree Service. Select any one of the following for more details about these programs: myPay, myAirForceBenefits, and myPers.
myPay is an innovative, automated system that puts customers, including military retirees, in control of processing certain discretionary pay data items without using paper forms. Retiree customers can also get pay and tax statements, and all this without having to make an appointment.
The value of myPay to military retirees is that it saves time — myPay eliminates the need to call, write letters, or fill out forms by letting the customer make changes immediately with user-friendly technology.
myPay is also convenient — customers can access myPay nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to change or review current information, or to check their most recent pay statement.
Finally, myPay is reliable — the information the military retiree enters into the system transfers directly to his or her pay system.
While accessing the website and enrolling in myPay is an almost intuitive process, Beale Retiree Activities Office volunteers are available to provide additional support, if needed. Please contact us by phone at (530) 634-2157 or via email at bealerao@gmail.com. When the COVID 19 Health Protection Conditions change and non-essential personnel are allowed to return to Beale AFB, the Beale RAO will also be able to provide support to the retired military community using our office computers.
DFAS Customer Service, 1-800-321-1080, is available Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., ET.
DFAS
myPay is a service provided by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). One of the largest finance and accounting operations in the world, DFAS pays all DoD military and civilian personnel, retirees and annuitants, as well as major DoD contractors and vendors. In fiscal 2019, DFAS:
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Processed 140.8 million pay transactions (6.5 million people/accounts)
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Made 6.2 million travel payments
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Paid 15.1 million commercial invoices
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Maintained 98 million General Ledger accounts
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Managed $1.17 trillion in Military Retirement and Health Benefits Funds
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Made $616.6 billion in disbursements
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Managed $579 billion in Foreign Military Sales (reimbursed by foreign governments)
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Accounted for 1,349 active DoD appropriations
The DFAS vision is to "to be a recognized leader in financial management by consistently delivering first-class service and products," and myPay has to be ranked near the top in terms of ease of use, convenience, and reliability.
eRAS
A product of the myPay system, the monthly Electronic Retiree Account Statement (eRAS) is a secure and accessible way to track retiree pay details. Once a customer has logged into myPay, the customer can set up eRAS delivery. DFAS sends an email indicating that the customer’s eRAS is ready to view or download. At that point, the retiree logs into the myPay account and retrieves the current eRAS. Getting the eRAS online is safer and more convenient than getting it by mail. It is just one of the tools available within the myPay account.
Additional myPay Products and Services
With myPay you can
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View, print or save your Retiree Account Statement
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View, print or save your Combat-Related Special Compensation Statement
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Start, stop or change electronic allotments to financial institutions
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Change your mailing or e-mail address
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Make changes to your direct deposit information
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View, print or save your IRS Form 1099R
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Turn on your Retiree Newsletter notification
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Subscribe to the Retiree Newsletter
Your military service earned you and your family benefits that you should be able to enjoy well into the future. The first step is to become informed, see what benefits you are eligible for, research the effect of a benefit selection on your financial situation, and, finally, find out how to apply. The best resource to accomplish all of those steps is at MyAirForceBenefits.
MyAirForceBenefits is the official Air Force Benefits website and it is available, with a few exceptions, to military retirees and their family members, as well as to the general public. There are many other resources, both government and commercial, that provide information about military benefits programs. However, as the site of record on the subject, MyAirForceBenefits is where the Air Force recommends anyone interested in Air Force benefits look first for information that is current, comprehensive, and reliable.
Start first with the HOME page. In the menu near the top of the page, MyAirForceBenefits offers two outstanding tools: the Benefit Library and the Benefit Calculators. The Library contains fact sheets for all Federal Benefits available, sorted by Category, Component, Life Event, and listed alphabetically.
Eligibility for any benefit or service is based on current Air Force, DoD and/or VA regulations. This is important to know: Beale RAO, similar to RAOs throughout the entire U.S. military retiree community, supports eligible military retirees/family members, regardless of service branch.
Retirees from sister services may wish to review applicable AR and DoD regulations, and VA policies, to investigate benefits that may be available to them. Please contact the Beale RAO if we can be of assistance in researching benefits information. Call us at (530) 634-2157 or email us at bealerao@gmail.com.
If you are considering a possible relocation to another state, you can select the State/Territory Benefits category from the Benefit Library, plug in the state you are considering and you will find a number of benefit programs applicable to that state:
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State Taxes
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Education Benefits
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Employment Benefits
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Unemployment Compensation
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Licensing
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Health and Insurance Benefits
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Parks and Recreation Benefits
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VA Facilities
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Resources
While benefit programs may remain fundamentally the same, it is not unusual to find changes in policies and procedures for those programs. As you browse the MyAirForceBenefits site, Benefit News is a feature on several pages, ensuring that military retirees have access to the latest developments in the military benefits world.
myPers is the official website of the Air Force’s Personnel Center. It is one more site where military retirees and their family members can find accurate and current information regarding retirement issues.
From the HOME page, select Career Management, and then, ID Card Entitlements. This is a rich resource with information regarding DEERS, DMDC, as well as specific information and resources on Dependency Determination, Identification Cards, Eligibility, TRICARE, Former Member/Dependent Entitlements, and Retiree Entitlements.
Staying with the Career Management menu option, military retirees will also want to visit the Retirement page. Retiring from military service is a significant achievement. Ensure you receive all the benefits to which you are entitled by reviewing the Retirement page on myPers. The following links go to myPers and provide information on:
There is also a direct link from the myPers Retirement Information page to the Air Force Retiree Services (AFRS) website. AFRS (https://www.retirees.af.mil/, the number one tool in the Military Retiree Toolbox, contains a library of fact sheets and resource information important to military retirees and also serves as a jumping-off point to sites such as myPay, myAirForceBenefits, and myPers.
For more information about the Air Force Retiree Services, please visit the Go to the Sources section on this same page.