The Air Force has announced that officers and enlisted Airmen who promote in March will not see their pay increases immediately due to upgrades and changes to the Military Personnel Data System (MilPDS).
MilPDS is the Air Force's primary records system for managing personnel and pay. It is maintained by the Air Force Personnel Operations Agency located at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in San Antonio, Texas. MilPDS is being upgraded and migrated to the Defense Information System Agency's Defense Enterprise Computing Center (DISA DECC). The MilPDS move was originally schedule for December 2012, but was postponed as officials completed additional testing to ensure that new system was prepared for the transition.
MilDPS will be unavailable from 4 March 2013 to 26 March 2013 as the system is improved and the product is migrated to its new home. As a result, pay changes will not be implemented during this time. All personnel will be properly paid, retroactive to the date of the pay change, after the system move is complete. Officials expect all changes to be completed within 10 days after the process has completed. Personnel are encouraged to verify their data in the virtual Military Personnel Flight application, after the 10 day period has ended, to ensure that all information has been properly updated.
The Air Force has alternate plans to deal with many of the personnel and pay issues that occur on a routine basis. Complete details can be found in MilPDS Upgrade Briefing. Please keep in mind, this document contains the old dates and deadlines.
Key Things To Do:
- Print out paper copies of any transactions that occur prior to the system move.
- Be aware of the situation.
- Check your data following the move.
Now, I hate to sound all negative, but I would anticipate some hiccups along the way. Very rarely do these things go as smoothly as planned. I would definitely not make any plans for spending a promotion pay increase until the money is in your bank account. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that this happens easily and no one is seriously impacted.
