The military is in the news and it’s not about a war. The military messed up bonuses for re-enlistment years ago and then decided to ask for the money back. From soldiers who had already served multiple tours, often in Afghanistan or Iraq, not just people who signed up to serve in the military and got to live in Germany for a couple of years. These were soldiers who were absolutely in harm’s way.
Legally, it seems that the Pentagon has every right to ask for money back. It was a mistake in some cases and outright fraud by the recruiter in others.
While I’ve never served in the military, I have made a huge payment mistake. I paid a dead man $10,000 and attempted to pay him more.
To keep reading, click here: Why Business Owners Need to Pay Attention to the Pentagon Bonus Scandal
I had such a problem with a bank. I told them that money had appeared in my account. The manager said, “There there, dear, you just made a mistake. Spend it and don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” I was young and barely scraping by. I waited a few weeks and finally used it. A few months later when the rent check bounced I found out they’d grabbed it back without warning. Yeah, the money was theirs, but what a rotten way to handle it. As I became more financially stable I told a lot of friends to avoid a bank that made mistakes and handled them underhandedly, so their few bucks got them a good bit of bad press. That sort of reputation would be bad for employers too.
I want to read your huge payment mistake but it links to an article about hiring people who make typos…or is that demonstrating the point of the article? LOL
This one is going to get very very ugly. The Pentagon is going to claim that it was the actions of a couple of “bad apples”. However the widespread nature of the problem (almost every state), as well as the oddly persistent lack of auditing (when they were having the most difficulty recruiting people), will lead people to question whether this was done intentionally.