Dual-service families could receive compensation cut

Many of the 40,000 dual-service couples in the military — members married to other service members — have for years drawn combined housing allowances stateside that more than cover their rent and utility costs.

The philosophy has been that Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is a key element of military compensation needed to keep pace with civilian worker salaries, so it should not be reduced or eliminated based on what dual-service couples actually pay for housing.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has inserted language in its version of the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill that takes a different view. It seeks to end what some lawmakers perceive as an income windfall for dual-service couples by linking BAH payments to what these families actually pay to rent housing at new and future assignments.

If the full Senate and, later this summer, the full House were to agree to this change, it would be a dramatic compensation cut for dual-service families whose total numbers have grown over the last several years with military recognition of gay and lesbian marital status.

Under current law, a dual service couple with no children assigned to the same locale can each draw BAH at a lower “without dependents” rate. If the couples have a child or children, the more senior ranking member can draw BAH at a higher “with dependents” rate while the other member continues to draw BAH at the lower “without” rate.

The Senate bill, in both circumstances, would allow only the higher-ranking member in dual-service marriage to draw any BAH, though at the higher with-dependents rate. The other member would be ineligible for BAH.

To prevent couples from circumventing this proposed change in law by living in separate residences while assigned to the same area, the Senate committee would direct that the new BAH limit apply to couples “who are assigned within normal commuting distance from each other.”

The impact of this change would be significant.

Consider an enlisted dual-service couple, an E-7 and E-6 with a child, who moves to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Under current law, the E-7 would get BAH at the with-dependents rate and the E-6 would get BAH at the without dependents rate, so their combined BAH per month would be $2,628 (or $1,518 plus $1,110).

Under the Senate plan, only the E-7 would receive BAH, lowering the couple’s income by $1,110 a month or $13,320 a year.

Consider now married officers, O-4 and O-3, with no other dependents and they move to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Under current law, each could draw BAH at the “without’ rate for combined BAH ($1,587 plus $1,470) of $3,057 monthly. The Senate committee language would allow only the O-4 to draw BAH but at a higher “with dependents” or $1,944 a month. So this couple would see total BAH fall by $1,113 a month or $13,356 a year.

For any stateside area, the proposal would be a more significant cut for officers than for enlisted, and deeper for all ranks in higher cost housing areas of the country such as San Diego or Washington D.C.

Other language in the Senate bill would curb BAH for service members who reside together to save on their housing costs. Service members in pay grade E-4 and higher who live together would see their BAH capped at 75 percent of “their otherwise prevailing rate” for their pay grade or at the E-4 “without dependents” rate, whichever is greater.

Both dual-service couples and members living together would see the described BAH reductions for the first time only after they move from current assignments.

As the committee explains in its report on the defense bill, current BAH levels would be protected “so long as they maintain uninterrupted eligibility to receive BAH within a particular housing area.”

Tom Philpott can be contacted at Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Va. 20120-1111, or by e-mail at:

[email protected]