Obtaining Verification of Pay
Military retirees, who may not have a traditional paycheck to offer as proof of income, have a couple of options to show you have income. Among the common documents creditors use are pay stubs, tax returns or bank statements. Your Retiree Account Statement (RAS) contains information on your pay and deductions that many potential creditors require, and the last 12 months of your RAS are available on myPay (https://mypay.dfas.mil).
If you cannot access myPay and you need a hard copy RAS mailed to you, you can call the Retired and Annuitant Pay Customer Care Center at 800-321-1080.
Another avenue is using what is called a ‘Verification of Pay’ letter, which DFAS also offers military retirees on the myPay platform. In the left-hand column under the STATEMENTS banner is a link for a Verification of Pay Letter.
Clicking on the link will generate an electronic letter in your name, including the home address you have on file, and the monthly gross amount of your military retired pay. The letter will be dated the day of your request and has the official Department of Defense seal and the return address of DFAS.
Sending the Letter
In the upper right-hand corner of the letter display is the option to get a “Printer Friendly” version by clicking on the printer icon.
This will open a new popup version that allows for you to either print the letter to give to the creditor or mail it via postal mail., If you need to send electronically via email or by uploading into a website, you can download the letter as an Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) file. To download the letter, click the icon with the down arrow with the line under it. This should generate a popup allowing you to save the PDF letter to your computer.
Page last updated February 16, 2023