Also, both the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Denver Center and the Internal Revenue Service will assign individual 9-digit identification numbers to their nonresident alien customers for income reporting. All of these individual identification numbers may be used for Direct Deposits of benefits. However, the VA will not provide this service. The CSA Retiree Council supports this issue and has requested HQDA RSO coordinate with VA to reemphasize the desire of retirees and annuitants to receive direct deposit of VA benefits to foreign banks. DFAS reports that it issued PINs to all Air Force, Navy and Marine retirees in late 1994, and to Army retirees in mid-1995.
New retirees receive PINs at the time of retirement.
This is an excellent system which affords the retiree instant access to individual pay information. For whatever reason, many retirees, including several members of the CRP, had neither received a PIN, nor were aware of the need for one. Assuming that the CRP represents a microcosm of the retiree population at large, additional measures are needed by DFAS to ensure that retirees, who for any reason do not have an AVRS PIN, are given the opportunity to acquire one. Such an effort should include not only a description of the AVRS and the services it provides, but the requirement for a PIN for access and the steps the individual should take to acquire one if he or she does not currently have one or wishes to change the one currently held. It is time they concluded it.