Most of the roughly 1,000 California National Guard soldiers who owe money to the service as part of a bonus overpaying snafu should have their debts erased by this summer.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the National Guard, which overpaid bonuses to thousands of soldiers in recent years, is working with federal officials to have most of the outstanding debts waived.
The California National Guard's deputy adjutant Matthew Beevers appeared before the state's Senate and Assembly Veterans Affairs committees and spoke about the matter that first became public last year.
If "you got a bonus and you completed your obligation and for some reason, you weren't entitled to it, we've done everything we can do ensure that those soldiers get to keep those bonuses and we continue to do that today," Beevers said, the Times reports.
Not all soldiers who received overpayments have been found. Overall, Beevers said a small number of them will have to pay back their bonuses.
"At the end of the day, there might be 600 or so soldiers out of 16,000 who might have to pay money, which is a very, very small number," he said.
The National Guard reportedly told its soldiers about the overpayments in 2010 and had been collecting money from them until the Pentagon put a halt to the payment process last fall.
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