Many GIs to Have Pay Immediately Reduced

A five-year-old Department of Defense policy that allowed military servicemembers to retain higher housing allowances even when they moved to cheaper neighborhoods will be abruptly changed tomorrow, in many cases without the affected families being notifed ahead of time. For example, a servicemember with family members in San Diego currently drawing the basic housing allowance (BAH) for living off-base will now draw the allowance for living on Camp Pendleton, and stands to lose $422 a month.

BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Untold numbers of servicemembers residing off base will see their next paycheck shrink by as much as $250 — and many of them may not even know the blow is coming.

Disbursing shops at several 1st Marine Division and 1st Force Service Support Group battalions surveyed over the past week said they learned only recently about the elimination of “geographic rate protection” under the Basic Allowance for Housing.

The change, outlined in Marine Administrative Message 315/01 and slated to take effect Monday, shelves a DoD policy enacted nearly five years ago. The old policy allowed servicemembers to retain higher housing allowances even when they moved to cheaper neighborhoods, said Master Sgt. Ervin Ramos, staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge for the Consolidated Personnel Administration Center, Headquarters and Support Battalion, Marine Corps Base.

“It’s money that you don’t rate,” Ramos said. “Some Marines will have to prepare themselves for the pay cut.”

Ramos is among administrative Marines sounding the alarm. By early last week, he had already sat down with 40 Marines in his battalion affected by the change, he said.

But many others on base may not find out except via the MarAdmin, the grapevine or the sticker shock of a leaner paycheck.

One…

Posted by Gregoire
I was born in NYC, raised in Palo Alto CA, attended university at UC Santa Cruz. I spent the better part of a decade traveling in Asia and working in restaurants before entering graduate school in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at UVA in Charlottesville VA,...