Military Families Finally Get More Money During Deployments

The monthly payment, called Family Separation Allowance, hasn't changed since 2002.

Twenty-three years of inflation later, military families are about to receive their first raise. Advocates say it's long overdue, but it's smaller than Congress authorized.

The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, signed Oct. 18 by President Donald Trump, bumps the payment from $250 to $300 per month. That's a 20% increase for service members involuntarily separated from their families for 30 days or more due to deployments, sea duty or other assignments.

Here's the frustrating part. Congress authorized the Pentagon to raise the allowance to $400 a month in the fiscal 2024 defense bill two years ago. The department just never did it. Defense officials called the 2024 increase "discretionary" and said they needed more time to study military compensation. Meanwhile, military families kept getting $250 a month while everything else got more expensive.

"It has been 20 years since the last increase of the Family Separation Allowance. It's time to bring it in line with the current cost of living," Kelly Hruska, government relations director for the National Military Family Association, told Military Times in January 2024. "This is what Congress intended."