DOD Urged to Strengthen Oversight of Military Financial Training Programs

A recent review by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Defense (DOD) lacks comprehensive oversight of financial education efforts for service members, raising concerns about the completion and effectiveness of required trainings. Although the DOD offers multiple financial literacy programs throughout a service member’s career, challenges in tracking and data collection are limiting the department’s ability to assess whether these trainings are being completed and achieving their intended outcomes.

The DOD and its service branches provide required training at various points in a military career to promote financial readiness, particularly around events like enlistment, deployment, or retirement planning. These sessions cover topics such as the Blended Retirement System, debt management, and savings strategies. In addition to structured trainings, personnel also have access to financial counselors and online resources. Despite these efforts, the GAO found that tracking systems often fail to capture accurate data about training participation due to the irregular timing of some sessions and limitations in administrative infrastructure.

While some military services have tried to improve compliance by emphasizing the importance of training to commanding officers, the DOD has not implemented a comprehensive strategy to identify why certain service members fail to complete required training. Without accurate data and analysis, it is unclear how widespread non-completion is or what barriers exist. The GAO recommends that the DOD address both tracking deficiencies and underlying reasons for non-compliance to ensure personnel receive the financial education they are entitled to.

To evaluate the long-term impact of its financial education efforts, the DOD has launched a multi-year study aimed at developing standardized performance indicators. These indicators would help measure whether financial readiness programs improve decision-making among service members. However, the department has yet to set a schedule for selecting or implementing these metrics. The GAO advises establishing clear timelines to ensure future evaluations are grounded in measurable outcomes.

In response to the report, the GAO issued three recommendations: improve administrative systems for tracking training completion, investigate and mitigate causes of training non-completion, and set deadlines for adopting performance measures to assess the effectiveness of financial education programs. The Department of Defense has agreed with all recommendations, though no corrective actions have been confirmed yet.

Article by multiple RFHC contributors, based upon information from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), report GAO-25-107666

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