How recipients fare as individuals will vary by pay grade and assignment area. Rates are rising, or at least staying level, across 79 percent of the military’s 365 housing areas, said Cheryl Anne Woehr, program manager for the Defense Department.
In the 21 percent of areas where rents have fallen this past year, members already living there will benefit from BAH rate protection. This law allows members who are committed to rental agreements or paying off mortgages to continue to draw housing allowances at current rates.
So only service members who move after Dec. 31 into areas where rental costs have fallen will feel the effects of lowered rates for 2013.
BAH for a married career enlisted member in the grade of E-6 will climb an average of $60 a month in January. A typical married officer, rank O-3, will see an average increase of $55 a month, Woehr said. Rates for 2013 are online at: http://www.defensetravel.dod .mil/site/bahCalc.cfm
Other pays will increase Jan. 1. Military basic pay increase will 1.7 percent across all ranks and pay grades. Basic Allowance for Subsistence will increase 1.1 percent based on food price changes tracked by a Department of Agriculture index. BAS for enlisted personnel will be $352.27 a month up from $348.44.
Officer BAS, which is always lower due to a quirky history of adjusting food allowances, will be $242.60 a month, up from $239.96.
Service members living off base overseas get an Overseas Housing Allowance instead of BAH. OHA is based on what members actually pay in rent. It also gets adjusted periodically as the dollar’s value shifts against local foreign currency. But OHA is not adjusted in concert with BAH.
Veterans using the Post- 9/11 GI bill get a monthly “living” stipend equal to the BAH rate in their area for an E-5 with dependents. VA will use 2013 rates to adjust the stipend in August, start of a new academic year.
BAH rates are adjusted based yearly based on changes in rental costs, utilities and renter’s insurance premiums for various housing types. Those who are married or have children draw the higher “with dependents” rate in all housing areas. BAH payments will total $20 billion in 2012.
Areas seeing some of the largest BAH increase this year include New York City, 14.7 percent; Altus Air Force Base, Okla., 14.1 percent; Sumter/Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., 11.8 percent; Honolulu County, Hawaii, 11.2 percent; and Hanscom Air Force Base, Maine, 10.8 percent.
Areas reporting some of the steepest rental declines include Portsmouth, N.H./Kittery, Maine, (-5.6 percent); Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, Calif., (- 5.1 percent); Fort Stewart, Ga. (-3.4 percent); and Montgomery, Ala. (-2.6 percent.)
Since 2008, BAH “without dependent” rates have benefitted from an artificial floor. These rates for single members must match at least 75 percent of the local “with dependents” rate at the same pay grade.
WRITE MILITARY UPDATE, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, or email milupdate@aol.com
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