Posted on Aug 21, 2015
Does my soldier bite the bullet and pay out of pocket for this BAH situation?
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I have a soldier who is married. Her husband decided to also join the Army and is at basic training now. Since they are now considered dual military, her BAH is now the single rate and not the with-dependent rate. Since the husband is being housed and fed, he does not receive BAH. She resides in on-post housing and they're taking the BAH with-dependent rate from her. The difference in pay is about $200 a month. Does she bite the bullet and pay out of pocket? Finance says because there are no children, they both get the single rate. Housing says they will continue to draw the with-dependent rate. Since her husband will be away for over 5 months (Basic and AIT), does this mean she has to make up the cost of living on her own? Seems like the Army is operating in bad faith. Does anyone know of a way so she doesn't have to pay out of pocket here.
Posted in these groups: 
BAH
Dual Military
BAH Dual Military
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 7
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That is an issue for your command team ( CO and 1SG). A visit to the JAG office and a nice talk with housing folks with copies of borh soldiers LESs should do.
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The short answer is she should technically be living in the barracks not housing. The long and "right" answer is that housing can figure it out and charge the correct amount until her husband arrives there.
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1SG (Join to see)
Actually she is still authorized the housing since she was living in housing with her dependent spouse prior to his joining the Army. However, if the spouse gets reassigned to a separate duty location, she should be reassigned into the barracks and forfeit her BAH. This is a command decision, she can get a waiver, and not mandatory.
This is definitely a situation where the chain of command needs to get involved. SMs living in government housing cannot be charged more than their BAH, to the best of my knowledge. Make somebody produce some sort of regulation that allows or does not allow housing to do this. Get finance and senior leadership involved.
They both need to quickly get their paperwork, 4187, submitted for enrollment into the MACP (Married Army Couples Program), which will assist with same location assignments and his return to her current duty assignment. The spouse in training isn't guaranteed return to the same location, but it will give his branch visibility of dual mil status and greatly improve the chance.
This is definitely a situation where the chain of command needs to get involved. SMs living in government housing cannot be charged more than their BAH, to the best of my knowledge. Make somebody produce some sort of regulation that allows or does not allow housing to do this. Get finance and senior leadership involved.
They both need to quickly get their paperwork, 4187, submitted for enrollment into the MACP (Married Army Couples Program), which will assist with same location assignments and his return to her current duty assignment. The spouse in training isn't guaranteed return to the same location, but it will give his branch visibility of dual mil status and greatly improve the chance.
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SFC (Retired) Efrain Hernandez
My son is a Specialist in the Army is the BAH regs the same in all branches?
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SGT (Join to see)
The CDR got involved and had a talk with housing. They lowered the rate to the single rate until she PCS'D, her and her husband ended up arriving to their next duty station together.
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This is an "administrative" issue more than anything else, however it is a convoluted mess of one that should have been addressed before he went to boot camp.
Get the Command Team involved ASAP. What they charge you for housing and what you make for BAH are "independent" but "linked."
As an example, if you are a SGT linking on base, you pay $1500/month (made up number) for a house. You get promoted to SSG and now get $1650/month but live in the same house, they STILL take it all. If you get promoted to SFC and it jumps to $1800, still living in the SAME house, they STILL take it all. Yes, you rate a larger house, but because of factors like moving, space available, children, etc, it may not be beneficial for you or the service to move.
The same "concept" holds true in reverse, though it is significantly rarer, as demotions just don't happen as often. It comes into play when you have Dual BAH recipients (geobachelors).
Getting the command team involved allows you to escalate it to "Base" who in turn can get the "Housing Authority" to waive the difference.
Get the Command Team involved ASAP. What they charge you for housing and what you make for BAH are "independent" but "linked."
As an example, if you are a SGT linking on base, you pay $1500/month (made up number) for a house. You get promoted to SSG and now get $1650/month but live in the same house, they STILL take it all. If you get promoted to SFC and it jumps to $1800, still living in the SAME house, they STILL take it all. Yes, you rate a larger house, but because of factors like moving, space available, children, etc, it may not be beneficial for you or the service to move.
The same "concept" holds true in reverse, though it is significantly rarer, as demotions just don't happen as often. It comes into play when you have Dual BAH recipients (geobachelors).
Getting the command team involved allows you to escalate it to "Base" who in turn can get the "Housing Authority" to waive the difference.
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SGT (Join to see)
I've never considered what happen of someone gets demoted. Who ever at housing deals with that would have a better idea (I hope) what to do in his situation.
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MAJ Javier Rivera
Simple, on post housing rent gets readjusted. If off post they have to right their belts.
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