scope:

GENERAL

A debt may be the result of an overpayment or erroneous payment not legally due a member, or an amount due to the United States Government but unpaid by a member. A debt may be for an overpayment of retired pay, an overpayment of active-duty pay and allowances, or other indebtedness arising from service on active duty (e.g. unpaid government hospital bills, unpaid rent due military installations or bad checks tendered to appropriated or nonappropriated fund activities). A debt may also be due to an overpayment from another Federal agency, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax levies, and/or court judgments. Also, a failure to deduct or an under-deduction from retired pay from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) compensation, Federal civil employment, Retired Serviceman's Family Protection Plan (RSFPP) or Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) costs, or allotments constitute an overpayment of retired pay. Pay or salary that has been earned for personal services rendered to the United States is authorized to be withheld only when expressly provided for by statute. See Table 28-1 for additional information. See Chapter 19 of this volume for precedence of discontinuing allotments, if required, to increase available pay for collection.