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I am about to PCS to Fort Drum and will have visitation rights with my son and I pay child support. I am a specialist and will be forced to live in the barracks but I need somewhere to bring my son for visitation. Will I be able to live in housing and collect single rate BAH?
PCS
Housing
Specialist
Barracks
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 9
5
5
0
"35. I am divorced with children, what is my BAH allowance?
It depends on whether or not you have legal and physical custody of your children, pay child support, and/or live in single-type Gov't quarters. If you have legal and physical custody of your children, then you are authorized BAH at the with-dependent rate if not assigned adequate family-type Gov't quarters. If your former spouse has custody and you are paying adequate child support (at least in an amount of your BAH-DIFF rate) you are authorized BAH at the with-dependent rate if not in Gov't quarters or BAH-DIFF if assigned single-type Gov't quarters."
https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/faqbah.cfm#Q1
I also found this on another RP question:
"The soldier will not be authorized BAH unless he has custody of the child for 181 consecutive days a year. He will be authorized BAH-Diff, even if he's in the barracks, to help with child support payments.
Exceptions to policy can sometimes be made, but for the soldier to receive full BAH, he will have to receive a Certificate of Non-Availability signed by the garrison commander. This is pretty much impossible to get unless the soldier's chain of command is willing to work with him.
Most soldiers I know in this situation rent a house or apartment off post with a roommate they trust, so that the child can stay with them during the summer. It's going to cost the soldier out of his basic pay, though.
Other options I've seen is if the divorce is amicable, soldiers and spouses will agree to "creative" wording in the divorce agreement that implies the soldier is entitled to 181 days of physical custody a year. This often gets around the BAH struggles, and it leaves the option open to the soldier that if they ETS or PCS to a location closer to the child and the child's mother, they will truly be able to enjoy full joint custody instead of just visitation without having to return to court to renegotiate the custody settlement."
http://www.hood.army.mil/dpw/housing/Files/FSBP_FAQs.pdf
It depends on whether or not you have legal and physical custody of your children, pay child support, and/or live in single-type Gov't quarters. If you have legal and physical custody of your children, then you are authorized BAH at the with-dependent rate if not assigned adequate family-type Gov't quarters. If your former spouse has custody and you are paying adequate child support (at least in an amount of your BAH-DIFF rate) you are authorized BAH at the with-dependent rate if not in Gov't quarters or BAH-DIFF if assigned single-type Gov't quarters."
https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/faqbah.cfm#Q1
I also found this on another RP question:
"The soldier will not be authorized BAH unless he has custody of the child for 181 consecutive days a year. He will be authorized BAH-Diff, even if he's in the barracks, to help with child support payments.
Exceptions to policy can sometimes be made, but for the soldier to receive full BAH, he will have to receive a Certificate of Non-Availability signed by the garrison commander. This is pretty much impossible to get unless the soldier's chain of command is willing to work with him.
Most soldiers I know in this situation rent a house or apartment off post with a roommate they trust, so that the child can stay with them during the summer. It's going to cost the soldier out of his basic pay, though.
Other options I've seen is if the divorce is amicable, soldiers and spouses will agree to "creative" wording in the divorce agreement that implies the soldier is entitled to 181 days of physical custody a year. This often gets around the BAH struggles, and it leaves the option open to the soldier that if they ETS or PCS to a location closer to the child and the child's mother, they will truly be able to enjoy full joint custody instead of just visitation without having to return to court to renegotiate the custody settlement."
http://www.hood.army.mil/dpw/housing/Files/FSBP_FAQs.pdf
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SPC (Join to see)
Would they be able to do am accepting to policy to move me into off post housing and I only collect single rate BAH?
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SFC Kelly Fuerhoff
SPC (Join to see) - You'd have to ask your leadership and finance. No one can answer what your leadership would do.
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I can't find in the regs, but I did have a soldier ETS out last fall and was received back pay BAH due to a then recent change. He only has partial custody, 1 weekend a month, 1 month a year basically. But BAH apparently changed within the last year or so to the extent that you apparently do not have to have 51% custody to get BAH. I fully support this as single parents without BAH that have partial/joint custody would otherwise have to dish out money to get a hotel room when their child visits taxing a typically tight budget. If I could find the change DFAS indicated, I would post it. I'll search some more tonight.
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SPC (Join to see)
This helps! I have every other weekend and certain holidays and a couple weeks in the summer with my son. It is court order as a transition period so he can end up with me full time eventually. I need to have housing for them to grant me custody. Kind of a difficult situation.
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If you do not have physical custody of your child for more than 50% of the year, you are not entitled to receive BAH.
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