USCG Pay & Personnel Center

Direct Access User Guides Retiree Self-Service E-Gov Travel System (ETS)

Customer Care Branch (CCB)

DEERS / ID CARD CHALLENGES

To our Coast Guard, PHS and NOAA retirees and their families,

Referencing the DEERS eligibility outage, the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) has restored 99% of our retired community’s TRICARE eligibility. There are a small group of accounts requiring additional attention and the Coast Guard continues to actively work with DMDC to address those cases this week. Thank you for your patience and support during this difficult time. We regret the inconvenience and uncertainty this outage has caused and appreciate you checking PPC’s website for the latest information and sharing it with our Coast Guard family.

Additionally, PPC sent notifications to all retired members using their Direct Access email on file. If you did not receive this notification, please take a moment to update your Direct Access contact information. In addition to helping us pass information for emergencies such as this, it will greatly assist everybody for future messaging . . . especially with tax season right around the corner.

Given this weekend’s events, please take a moment to verify your DEERS status/eligibility by visiting the milConnect website: milConnect (osd.mil). If you continue to experience eligibility issues, contact DMDC’s Beneficiary Line at 1-800-538-9552. If your situation requires a deeper dive, DMDC will refer you to PPC’s DEERS specialist.

Should you require emergent medical assistance or an Emergency Room visit before your eligibility is restored:

1. Obtain medical assistance as needed!

2. Keep all receipts/ records of medical assistance.

3. Contact TRICARE for reimbursement.

DIRECT ACCESS CHALLENGES

Our Pay and Personnel Center team members are users of Direct Access –just like you– and are similarly impacted by challenges with the system. Though the Pay and Personnel Center does not own or control repairs to Direct Access, we continue to advocate with the Program Office to prioritize repairs and the C5I Service Center to conduct those repairs. We appreciate your patience and grace during this time period.

In essence, Direct Access is our ship . . . and our ship is damaged and undergoing depot-level repairs. The crew at the Pay and Personnel Center are just as eager for Direct Access to come back to fully mission capable, so we can better serve our Coast Guard families.

RETIRED PAY

At present, for temporary, permanent, VA offset, AEW’s, CRDP, and CRSC disability, we are encountering a processing delay due to systematic issues and a shortage of personnel. You remain our primary concern. We want to assure you that we are fully committed to resolving these issues promptly and handling your cases with utmost proficiency.

PPC Page Menu

Customer Service Feedback

Mailing Address:

Commanding Officer (Staff Symbol)
U.S. Coast Guard
Pay & Personnel Center
444 S. E. Quincy St.
Topeka, KS 66683-3591

Telephone

(866) 772-8724
0730-1600 (Central time) M-F

E-Mail

PPC-DG-CustomerCare@uscg.mil

Web Content Manager

Customer Support

To ensure a positive experience for everyone, we kindly ask that all interactions with our technicians be conducted respectfully.

Please note our Ticket System does not reply with an assigned number.

CUSTOMER CARE INQUIRIES

PPC Call Center Technicians are prohibited from performing most inquiries.

All Active Duty and Reserve members requesting PPC assistance must submit a PPC Customer Care Ticket. Please see FAQ page for more details: CCB FAQ

Customers are directed to contact their P&A Office for any errors or questions on pay and/or personnel issues. If the P&A Office is unable to resolve it, the P&A Office is to contact the servicing SPO. If the servicing SPO is unable to resolve the issues, the SPO will contact PPC.

TRAVEL INQUIRIES

PPC Customer Care Call Technicians do not have the ability to unlock any users accounts.

Any member with travel related inquiries will need to be contact your local travel AO. If your AO is unable to resolve the inquiry, your travel AO must submit a PPC Customer Care Ticket for assistance. Please see FAQ page for more details: CCB FAQ

RETIREE/ANNUITANT INQUIRIES

PPC Call Center Technicians are prohibited from performing most inquiries.

We assist customers through getting issues identified and elevated by creating trouble-tickets for review and action that to go to the Retired Annuitant Services (RAS) branch. You may also submit an email that feeds into the trouble ticket system via PPC-DG-CustomerCare@uscg.mil. Please ensure your request contains a front and back copy of members photo ID and all required forms located at: Pay and Personnel Center (PPC), Retiree and Annuitant Services (uscg.mil). Direct Access Self Service remains the most secure and efficient means of managing your account.

The Pay and Personnel Center (PPC) is committed to protecting customer information. The PPC Call Center has experienced numerous attempts by bad actors to access retiree information. The following are a couple of instances:

Over three months, a suspicious caller (male in his 20s) attempted to access a retired Coast Guard Commander’s account by calling PPC and through email inquiries. At the time, there was no power of attorney on file. PPC challenged the individual claiming to be the retiree because of the email address not matching what was on file.
PPC received an email impersonating a retired National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Lieutenant Commander. The email stated that the retiree’s identification card was stolen. The email address did not match what was on file. After a brief fact-finding effort, the retiree was in Texas and did not send an email. The email originated from Bakersfield, CA.

The examples above and numerous others drove PPC’s Call Center to change procedures to mitigate fraud attempts by bad actors. PPC strongly encourages retirees to make all changes to their accounts via self-service. However, we understand there are instances where retirees cannot update their information via self-service. Strict protocols are in place to protect the retiree’s information when self-service is not an option for updating account information.

First, the Call Center will not change account information over the phone.
All retiree requests for account changes must be submitted via a customer care ticket by the retiree and include the proper form for the transaction and a photocopy of a valid government photo identification card (front and back).
While PPC makes every effort to protect accounts from fraud, it does occur. When PPC identifies potentially fraudulent activities, the Call Center contacts the Retiree and Annuitants Services (RAS) Branch.
RAS will contact the retiree and verify if the retiree contacted PPC to request an update to their account information. When a retiree confirms they did not make a request, PPC places a lock on the Direct Access account, and only PPC can make changes.
Finally, PPC adds the retiree to a “be on the lookout” list shared by the Call Center and RAS to coordinate response efforts to respond to and prevent fraudulent activity.

NEW: Retiree FastPass Now Available!

To avoid a wait time, Retirees/Annuitants can now submit a PPC Retiree FastPass ticket.

Password Assistance

Note: Per the Department of Homeland Security Handbook for Safeguarding Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information, we are not able to provide password resets via telephone.

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Are you having trouble resetting your Direct-Access password?

NEW GUIDANCE: Passwords and Set up/Update Security Questions (click for guide)

To ensure the safety and security of our service member’s and civilian employee’s accounts, effective immediately, Customer Care will no longer send password resets for active/reserve military members or civilian employees to personal email addresses. All password resets will be sent to USCG.MIL email addresses only.

If your email address is not present or is incorrect, you will not be able to use the self-service password reset feature until your Business email address has been added to the system or is corrected. Contact your P&A office or Servicing Pay Office (SPO) and ask them to update your address for you. They can perform this service for all Coast Guard personnel (Active Duty, Reservists and Civilians). Contractors and other non-USCG personnel/employees may contact PPC Customer Care or assistance.

Enhanced password controls were recently implemented in Direct Access to meet audit requirements. Passwords must now be 15 characters in length, have a least 1 special character, 1 number, 1 upper case, and 1 lower case. Passwords will expire every 35 days. DA will remember your last 9 passwords (must use new password when resetting). Accounts will lock (for 20 minutes) after 3 failed login attempts.

Password Reset Guidance

During a recent Direct Access (DA) system upgrade, the forgot password security question "What is your mother's maiden name?" was disabled in DA to reduce the possibility of a compromise of personally identifiable information (PII). For users who originally chose this as a security question, the hint question will now default to "What town were you born in?" but the ANSWER HAS NOT changed from what the user originally established for "What is your mother's maiden name?"

For those who have tried to use the Forgot Password feature and have been locked out of DA, please email PPC-DG-CUSTOMERCARE@USCG.MIL (click email address for template of required information) to request a temporary password. Once logged into DA, you will need to follow the user guide below to change your security question, answer, or both.

It is recommended that users who originally selected "What is your mother's maiden name?" as their Forgot Password security question, log into DA and follow the user guide below to change the security question, answer, or both.

PASSWORD OVERVIEW GUIDE PDF