The Coast Guard’s Human Capital System, otherwise known as Direct Access, underwent a change Sept. 4, 2020, to be more effective when paying reserve members as they transition between reserve status and active duty status.
Since the pay calendars for the Reserve Workforce and the active duty differ, reserve members transitioning to active duty orders tended to see a delay in being paid, if not processed timely. This new change will have a positive impact on the Reserve Workforce ensuring they receive their pay and allowances in a timely manner.
“We found that members were not being paid on time as they transitioned between inactive duty for training (IDT) to any types of active duty orders, “ said Chief Warrant Officer Brian Spina, Pay and Personnel Center (PPC) Military Accounts Support (MAS). “This change allows the reserve pay calendar and the active duty pay calendar to work together in order to pay members on time.”
According to Spina, the main issue occurred when reserve members would transition to a set of active duty orders with orders with unprocessed IDT orders in the system, which resulted in the delay of pay. With this new change, members should see an improvement when receiving pay.
“Members could reach out to PPC to get the issue taken care of, but that could be very time consuming process,” Spina said. “Now this should remove the need for member’s to connect with PPC via P&A/SPO offices for manual changes to resolute these issues, which has been a source of frustration over the years.”