Another military relief society moves toward online financial aid applications

Another military relief society is moving toward allowing service members to apply online for emergency financial assistance.

Army Emergency Relief has relaunched its website with a feature that allows soldiers and others eligible for emergency financial assistance to fill out the forms online, but it’s not yet a complete online application process. That application form serves as an alert when it pops into the local AER officer’s work queue. The online process will provide the soldier with contact information to set up an appointment for assistance, along with information about documentation the soldier needs to bring.

Even at this early stage in ’s efforts, the limited new process is saving time for the soldier and helping speed up the response time for assistance, said Charles Durr, a retired Army command sergeant major who is chief of assistance for Army Emergency Relief. “It’s started the alert and created good communication between the soldier and the AER section,” he said.

All of the military relief societies offer either grants or interest-free loans if your need and eligibility meet their guidelines. The relief societies don’t charge fees.

One of AER’s sister military relief societies, Air Force Aid Society, has offered online applications for airmen and their eligible family members for more than a year. “It’s working very well for us,” said Linda Egentowich, a retired Air Force colonel who is chief operating officer of that relief society. Generally, more applications are submitted online than in person at the Air Force Aid offices, she said, and it’s very helpful for airmen to be able to submit the application online from home or wherever. The airmen have at hand the information they need, such as pertinent bills, and can scan and upload the documentation with the application.
The process pushes the application to the installation that’s closest to where the airmen live, and, when approved, they come to the Air Force Aid office to pick up their check, she said.

Since AER implemented a “soft launch” of the new website in February, about 11 percent of the AER emergency assistance cases have been started through the new online function, Durr said.

Soldiers can also print out the blank form and fill it out, and take it to the AER office. (You can’t currently print out the form after you fill it out online.) It will take a number of months before the application process can be completed online. The next step, sometime in the fall, will allow soldiers to upload their documentation online. The AER scholarship application process is already completely online.

At this time, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is not moving toward an online application for financial assistance, said spokeswoman Shelley Marshall, a retired Navy captain.

That relief society has had a pre-appointment form on its website since 2012, she said. That form helps sailors, Marines and their family members collect the information they need about income, expenses and debt before they visit the office to request assistance.


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Karen Jowers covers military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times. She can be reached at [login to see] .