New policy decreases threat of identity theft Published Sept. 8, 2005 ARLINGTON, Va. (AFPN) -- The undersecretary of defense-comptroller and the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness have cosigned a new policy that directs military departments and all defense civilian employees to support the policy to eliminate paper copies of leave and earnings statements and W-2 tax statements.Under the new policy, servicemembers and civilian nonbargaining employees who logon to the myPay Web site are consenting to receive electronic copies of their documents.Bargaining unit civilians will be brought onto this system as soon as local negotiations are completed.MyPay is currently available to all servicemembers, Department of Defense civilian employees, and military retirees and annuitants. Although the policy applies to servicemembers and DOD civilians, the benefits of using myPay to eliminate identity theft associated with postal delivery of these statements also applies to retirees and annuitants for their 1099 tax statements.For many years, myPay has provided servicemembers and civilian employees with a secure method to view, print and save their LES, W-2 or 1099s electronically. Receipt of electronic documents eliminates risk associated with hand-delivered mail. By using myPay to view and print statements, names, addresses and Social Security numbers are protected.The individual controls when the document is viewed and printed, and sensitive data is under his or her control at all times. This is particularly important for W-2s and 1099s, where the SSN cannot be masked because of Internal Revenue Service regulations.Besides obtaining electronic copies of LES’ and tax statements, customers can make adjustments to federal and state tax withholdings and update bank account and electronic transfers by accessing myPay.