Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 2851. First, know what you are filling: Request to Correct Thrift Savings Plan Agency Error. The document is titled DD Form 2851, Request to Correct Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Agency Error, November 2001..
Next, check the edition. You want not stated, currently carried as not stated by the publisher. Then confirm the form applies to you — this is a Department of Defense form, so you use it whether you serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force or Coast Guard under Defense jurisdiction.
After that, turn to timing. The requirement comes from not stated; the form is maintained by not stated. Local implementing instructions fill in the dates, so check with the office that will receive your copy.
Finally, decide how you will complete it. You can type into a fillable file or print a blank and write by hand, and the rest of this page walks you through both paths in order.
Now fill it in. Work from the top of the page downward, and do not jump ahead — the identifying block comes first, the substance of your entry second, the certification last. Later boxes often depend on what you put at the top.
Your first action is verification. Find the edition date on the form and match it against not stated. A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
Take the fields in order and answer all of them. Mark inapplicable items N/A instead of leaving white space. When you reach a date, copy the format shown on the form, since a reviewer reading a different convention may misread your entry entirely.
Stop at the Privacy Act Statement and read it through. You will find the authority for the collection, the principal purpose, the routine uses, and whether disclosure is voluntary or mandatory. Read it now, while you still have the choice of what to disclose.
Sign last, and sign properly. On paper that means ink in the signature block. Electronically it means a digital signature, usually applied with your Common Access Card in a reader that supports it. Typing your name into the field does not sign anything. Then add the date beside your signature — an unsigned or undated form is the most common reason one comes back.
Review before you submit. Look for a superseded edition, blank mandatory fields, illegible writing, dates in the wrong format, and an unsigned or undated certification.
If a particular field puzzles you, read the instructions printed on the form first, then go to not stated. When the two disagree, follow the directive.
Download the form
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 2 pages and about 27 entries.
Take the pdf if you are unsure. Then check which kind you have: if the boxes highlight when you click them, you have a fillable pdf and can type straight into it, and your entries save with the file. If nothing highlights, you have a printable pdf — send it to a printer and use black ink.
Go with the typed route whenever the choice is yours. Consider what happens after you submit: the copy gets scanned, forwarded and filed, and each pass costs handwriting some legibility. Block letters help if you are stuck with a pen.
Handle xfdl in two steps. First confirm you have IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or a compatible reader on your machine; ordinary pdf software will report the file as broken. Once the viewer is running, download and fill the form.
Whichever you pick, you pay nothing — every format here is a free download. One last tip: open your pdf in a desktop reader rather than in a browser tab, because browser viewers sometimes drop the interactive fields you need.
What the form asks for
- 1. Name. Enter as last name, first name, middle initial.
- 2. Grade.
- 3. Date of birth. Four digit year, two digit month, two digit day.
- 5.a. Duty DSN telephone number. Include area code and punctuation marks.
- 5.b. Duty commercial telephone number. Include area code and punctuation marks.
- 6. Member's unit name and address.
- 7. Branch of service. X first box if Air Force, second box if Army, third box if Navy, fourth box if Marine Corps, fifth box if Coast Guard, sixth box if Public Health, or seventh box if NOAA.
- 8. Input source. Unit name, address, and telephone number.
- 9. Status. X first box if active duty, second box if guard, or third box if reserves.
- 10. Payroll date. Four digit year, two digit month, two digit day.
- 11. Date payment made to NFC. Four digit year, two digit month, two digit day.
- 12. Claimant's brief explanation of error.
- 13. Input source's explanation of extenuating circumstances.
- 14. Documentation attached to support claim. Mark X if Leave and Earnings Statements.
- 14. Mark X if TSP participants statements.
- 14. Mark X if TSP form 1, TSP election form.
- 15. For official use only.
- 16.a. Claimant's signature.
- 16.b. Date signed. Four digit year, two digit month, two digit day.
- 16.c. E-mail address.
- 17. Input Source. a. Signature.
- 17.b. Date signed. Four digit year, two digit month, two digit day.
- 17.c. E-mail address.
- 18. Additional remarks. Use this space to continue any item if necessary.
With the form finished, route it to the office named in not stated or in your organization's own instruction. Keep a copy first. People rarely regret having one and frequently regret not having one.
If the form points you to another document, you can find it by number alone. DD numbering runs across the whole Department, so you do not need to work out which service issued it — one number, one form, everywhere.
Watch out for one trap here. If your instructions cite a DA form as well, do not assume the numbers are connected. DA numbering belongs to the Army alone; DD numbering belongs to the Department and is administered by not stated or another Department office. The same number in each system means two unrelated forms, so read the prefix before you download.
Come back and check the edition next time you need this form. Editions change when the prescribing directive is reissued, when the information collected changes, or when the required notice language is updated, and none of those events reaches you directly. Verifying not stated at the moment you download is the whole defence.
Finally, understand the limits of what you have read. This page distributes a published Department of Defense form and describes how to fill it out. It does not give legal or procedural advice, and it cannot promise any outcome for your particular case. For that, contact not stated, your administrative office, or the authority identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2851?
- DD Form 2851, Request to Correct Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Agency Error, November 2001.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?