Understanding the costs of moving expenses is complicated and with projected changes to the allowance for military families – it may just cost more to make it happen!
Well, it’s a bit of a Bah, Humbug this Christmas season for military families who are experiencing a second consecutive effective reduction in their Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) this year.
I say “effective” reduction because, technically, BAH rates have risen by an average of 3.4%, which translates to roughly $54 per family. This increase still means that if you are a military family, you will now be responsible for an additional 1% of your housing expenses in 2016.
The 1% increase is on top of the additional 1% that you paid in 2015. There’s no sign of this downward trend letting up either, as by 2019, military families should expect to cover 5% of their out-of-pocket housing costs.
It’s not that we weren’t expecting this to happen, though. If you’ve been reading along with our coverage of the projected changes to BAH over the past few years, you’ll have noted that this is a much more positive outcome for military families than we could have expected (it’s good to look for the silver lining, right?). At one point, it looked like the DoD would eliminate BAH. At another point, rumors suggested that military families would return to covering 20% of their out-of-pocket housing costs, as they did when BAH first originated.
What does this mean for you?
If your BAH is roughly $1,500, then you could expect to pay yet another $50 in additional housing expenses next year. However, this rate of reduction only applies to military families who PCS, as those currently on station are grandfathered into their current BAH rate (unless BAH rises, and then the new allowance applies).
$50 per month may not seem like a lot, but it quickly adds up. At the end of the year, your family will need to cover approximately $600 in housing expenses.
Courtesy of MilitaryByOwner posting