When will my husband receive BAH?

Question

We have been married for over six months now he is in the military and we have still not received any funds for BAH, we are at a dificult point in our lives where the funding is severely needed and I just find it ridiculous that the funds have not come in yet. My mother who just retired from the military as a Lieutenant told me that it should not even take this long. Who can I speak to about this problem? By the way my husband is in the Army and he is on active duty.

Answer 1

first does he QUALIFY for it?  do you live in base housing?  does he have accompanied orders?  do you have your ID card(proof you are in DEERS)  

If he is living in the barracks and you are living somewhere else , and he has accompanied orders, he does NOT qualify for BAH.  Geo Bachelors are frowned upon and he forfeits BAH if he is living in the barracks, regardless of the reasons why.  

YOU can speak to no one, only HE can.  no one will speak to you regarding financial matters unless you have a specific POA authorizing you to do so.  

Answer 2

Unless the SAME benefits will be doled out to bachelor servicemembers, all ridiculous benefits afforded to married servicemembers should be eliminated/rolled back immediately. BAH, family sep pay, etc.

There is no reason to reward some servicemembers just because they decided to enter in a marriage that more than likely will end in divorce anyway; paying some more than others just because they have worthless dependents. Ridic.

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Answer 3

It is something that should have been in his pay at the max 4 months ago and it is backdated to the date you got married.  Has he talked his superiors about this, because they should be involved.  If money is tight then talk to Family Services on what can be done to help you.  They do have funding for this through AER (i believe that is the name).

You are giving conflicting information because you have another post where you say your dh is only giving you $300 every payday but has a $1000 put into an allotment and he is an E1.  have you seen his LES that shows you that he isnt getting it?  Because that $1000 is about what BAH is going to be for some areas.

Answer 4

Do you live on or off post? You only get it if you live off post and you must live together. You also get it if he is deployed/training. Does the Army KNOW you are married? Did you file all the necessary paperwork?

Answer 5

More info is needed,Does your hubby live in gov. quarters on an unaccompanied tour? because If a member is serving an UNACCOMPANIED overseas tour, the member is eligible for BAH at the ‘with-dependent’ rate, based on the dependent's U.S. residence ZIP Code,  if the member is not furnished government housing overseas.does your husband send you an allotment, or do you share a bank account because if you have seperate bank accounts maybe he just isnt sending it to you. Have you checked his LES to see if he has received anything yet. Also the Army's first priority is the soldier, he signed the papers. Not his family. Since your profile says he is stationed in Italy you need to go to the closest base and find finance and ask them for help.  

Answer 6

Did your husband go to his admin office and submit his marriage certificate?

As the other poster stated they could of never processed it and should be corrected immediately as it takes about a month for this type of stuff.

You will also receive back pay to the date of marriage.

In the mean time your Post should have some type of Family Service Center that will be able to assist you in the mean time.  

Answer 7

There might be some SNAFU with the paper work.  Get your husband to look into it again or call the base yourself.  I don't know how it works in the Army, but in the Coast Guard even junior enlisted personnel got a housing allowance or base housing if married.

Answer 8

If the housing office or finance folks messed it up and you've been working with them but it's not been fixed, then your husband should take this up his chain of command.  You should not handle it.. he should.  The Army isn't your employer.. and COC's don't love getting calls from spouses.   Take it up the chain and see what they can do with it.  Hopefully a phone call will get it fixed and you'll see a big fat retro check!

Answer 9

A lot more details are needed to answer properly.  

Do you live together?  

Does he live on base or off base?

Does he live in the dorms?

What is the finance office saying?

How did your mother retire as a lieutenant?  

It only took the following 1st of the month paycheck to receive our BAH.

Answer 10

a few more months (im just guessing)

Answer 11

Only your husband can get the answer to this one.  He needs to speak to his immediate supervisor as well as accounting and finance.  I agree..if you are living together, off base, it should not take this long for your housing money to come in.  If however you are living on base, you won't see any of it (unless the housing is privatized and then you may).  Additionally, if your husband is at his duty station and you choose not to accompany him, even though you were on the orders, this may mean you won't see much BAH.  Volunatary refusal of orders usually means the active duty ends up in dorms (especially lower enlisted) and all you would get is differential BAH..the difference between dependent rate and the cost of living in the dorms..usually equal to single rate BAH for the location and rank.  The difference is what you would get..usually only a couple hundred dollars a month.

Only the active duty member has the ability to get this sorted out and it will mean being very pro-active.  Your hubby needs to talk with his supervisor and with finance.  He may need to get his command involved at this point as well.  Be sure he has all the paperwork he will need on hand, as well as any confirmation of enrollment he may have gotten when he submitted it originally.  If you have not used your Tricare benefits yets, be sure they are active and your enrollment in DEERS is active as well.  He is going to have to stay on top of this until is is rectified and unfortunately there is little you can legally do to help with it.  The good news is once it is fixed, as long as you were eligable for it, you will get the back BAH all in one shot.

Answer 12

Has your husband gone to the administrative section and submitted your wedding certificate.  Unless he files the marriage they won't recognize him as being married. Once the marriage is registered with the administrative section the BAH is retroactive to the date of marriage.  Plus you need to be registered into DEERS for your dependent i.d. card and tricare eligibility to be effective.  

Answer 13

There is nobody you can really talk to about it. He has to go in and badger his admin gurus every day until they get off their lazy butts and take care of it. You might try contacting your congressman, but they usually don't do a dang thing. You Mother is exactly right, it shouldn't take that long, and you should get backpaid for the time you have been married but haven't been receiving BAH, so that will be one big paycheck to help you two out... These kinds of problems are commonplace in the military and I have seen it a million times. Good luck!

Answer 14

You will be in debt until he reaches at least E-5.

Answer 15

good question.

Answer 16

Have you been Command Sponsored yet?  Also, if you need emergency money, he should go to AER(Army Emergency Relief).

Answer 17

sometimes it takes a long time...  its just the way it works.  he can speak to someone at the s shop (i dont know what finance is, S1?).  are you sure they got his marriage cert and all that?  are you in deers?

a good thing to think of is that the Army ALWAYS makes up for the pay you missed, so when BAH does kick in, you'll have the 6 months you didn't get BAH added in to his pay.

it takes time, but he needs to keep going there or calling.

so, you're 6 months new to the Army, you'll see this happen A LOT.  it took us 3 months for our married BAH to come in (he was e6 when we got married though, so he was already getting BAH) but we moved 5 months ago and we're still waiting for reimbursment - and moving across the entire country is expensive!  there is nothing you can do, and the only thing he can do is check on it, call dfas, go to s1, talk to his leadership, that's all.

Answer 18

6 months,  it usualy is no longer than a month  tell him to go to s-1 and finance