Nearly 13,000 troops from the National Guard have reportedly not received any payment since President Joe Biden came into office.
According to Fox News, around 9,000 service members who were promised bonuses as high as $20,000 for their part-time service have yet to receive the money.
The problem is even more widespread, as an additional 3,900 service members who have already completed their service and have since left the military have also not received their bonus payment.
An official told Fox News that the “majority” of people “appear to have been ineligible due to an associated adverse action that was not lifted upon their separation.”
“If a soldier is flagged for an adverse action — being overweight, discipline action, etc. — the bonus is put on hold until he/she meets all qualifying standards (that were all part of the bonus contract.) and sometimes they simply don’t do that,” the official told the news outlet.
Fox News Digital and Military.com were the first to report the problem, which has left many members dissatisfied with the process.
“I was really relying on this money to help with moving into a new place with my wife,” one soldier told Military.com, adding that he was supposed to receive half of his $20,000 enlistment bonus a year ago. “I did my end of things, and this is a really bad introduction to the Army, not taking care of people.”
Bonuses are normally given out upon the completion of initial entry training by a member; if more than 30 days have passed since the training was completed and no payments have been made, the National Guard will consider the payment to be late.
However, the official said that there is no official policy dictating when payments must be made. As a result, service members have only a few options when payments are past due.
“Soldiers who are still in their unit who are fully qualified and have not received their bonus can alert their first-line leader and personnel service section to the issue so they can take action to get it resolved,” the official added.
In response, a spokesman for the National Guard said that the service “continues to monitor and track outstanding bonuses by state/territory and actively makes every effort to assist states in decreasing their aggregate workload.”
