Do you have to pay back a reenlistment bonus in the Army?

Question

If you are chaptered out of the Army for being pregnant do you have to pay back your reenlistment bonus? I was given a 9,000.00 bonus in Iraq for a six year reenlistment term in Feb of 06. My contract will be up in Feb of 2012. If I am required to pay it back how do they calculate how much I owe of it and how will it be paid back once I am out of the Army? Do they take your last few pay checks in their entirety or do you just make payments to the Army?

Answer 1

If you need to pay back a portion of your bonus on a pro-rata basis, it probably will be calculated as follows: (time spent during reenlistment) / 6 years x $9,000.

Answer 2

It's pro-rated and YES you have to pay it back.  The contract says you get $9,000 for 6 years of service and since you don't serve all 6 you don't get all the money.  They more then likely will just debit it straight out of your account at the very end and if you don't have enough money in there you get struck with overdraft fees and everything.  You will then owe the federal government money and then will take all your tax returns until it's paid.  

Answer 3

You DO have to pay it back, you might be able to get by without paying it back if whoever is doing your chapter/ETS paperwork doesnt recognize you got your bonus.

My recomendation to you is to NOT get out on pregnancy discharge, wait until you have the baby, then get out on family care plan seperation. Pregnancy discharge is a voluntary discharge, and you probabley wont get to keep certain benifits. Family Care Plan discahrge is involuntary, and you will get to keep all of the benifits entitled to you if you were to ETS after meeting the requirement, you probabley will be able to keep your re-enlistment bonus as well. Feel free to email me if you have questions.