Request for Waiver of Debt

A member of the Navy requested reconsideration of the denial of her application for waiver of her debt to the United States. The debt arose from erroneous payments of basic allowance for quarters (BAQ) at the with dependent rate and an overpayment made through miscomputation of pay and allowances based on BAQ adjustment entries on her pay account while in a transient status. The original request was denied on the findings that she was aware that her husband was sending allotments for support of their child, she was not providing support for the child, and she knew that the purpose of BAQ was to provide dependents with support. Waiver of debt for the erroneous overpayment was also denied because her leave and earnings statements (LES) indicated that she had been paid BAQ. In this appeal, she contended that she did provide for the support of her child after separation from her husband, and that after entering the service, she made an allotment in her mother's and child's names and also sent them money orders. She denied receiving allotment checks from her husband after she entered the service. The record showed that she may have reasonably considered the amount of BAQ she received to be correct. However, since her LES verified the amount of her pay, she had no reason to believe that she should receive further unexplained BAQ payments by a retroactive payment. Accordingly, waiver was granted for the erroneous BAQ payments. The action denying waiver of the additional overpayment was sustained.