Posted on 12/17/2017 3:32:38 AM PST by SandRat
Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) paid to 956,000 service members living off base in the United States will climb modestly Jan. 1, an average of only 0.7 percent or $10 a month, as an allowance-dampening formula enters its fourth year.
Actual BAH increases for individuals will vary widely based on where they are assigned, pay grade and whether they have family. But military folks assigned to 128 of 301 of military housing areas will see no housing allowance increase in 2018 because local BAH rates will fall.
Thanks to a rate protection rule, no current recipients will see their BAH allowance fall in the new year, unless they move to a new locale, are demoted or they see their dependency status change.
“We do not penalize members who have already gone to a location, signed a lease and then rates happen to decrease,” said Summer Britford, allowance branch chief for the Defense Travel Management Office in Alexandria, Va. “Incoming members do have access to lowered [rental] costs so they do experience those decreases.”
Across 173 housing areas stateside BAH rates will rise or be unchanged. Rates for 2018 can be found online at: defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm
For a fourth straight year, BAH adjustments will not quite keep pace with the rise of rents and utility costs because the Department of Defense is implementing a five-year plan to hold down the cost of stateside housing allowances. The dampening of rates by one-percent a year will continue through 2019 when recipients will be paying five percent of off-base rental expenses out of pocket.
The four percent “absorption” rate in 2018 means monthly housing allowances will be $51 to $117 short of covering average rent and utility costs. The impact on individuals depends on rank, dependency status and assignment location. The range of out-of-pocket costs forecast for 2017 was $37 to $85 a month
Defense officials had urged Congress to allow dampening of BAH through next year so that millions of compensation dollars could be diverted to other readiness needs in tight times for defense budgets. Besides the plan to raise member out-of-pocket rental costs to five percent, officials saved another one percent on BAH, starting in 2015, by excluding rental insurance from rate calculations.
In the late 1990s, when BAH began, rates were set to cover 80 percent of average rental costs. Starting in 2000, BAH funding grew. By 2005 the 20 percent absorption rate had been eliminated. Through 2014, average BAH fully had covered members’ rental expenses.
Even as the relative value of BAH falls, officials point out that members can control out-of-pocket costs based on rental choices. Rates are set so that members who rent median-priced properties will pay a small amount out of pocket. Those who elect to economize in housing choices can find units their BAH will fully cover.
In 2018, BAH payments will total $20.9 billion, said Britford. Average BAH nationwide will be $1839 for members with dependents and $1493 for members without dependents. Rates are reset annually based on median market rents and average utility costs (electricity, heat, water and sewer) for six housing profiles — a combination of dwelling type (apartments, townhouses single-family homes) and number of bedrooms. Individual rates reflect local costs for the type of housing deemed appropriate for a member based on pay grade and dependency status.
Fresh cost data for adjusting rates are collected in two ways, Britford said. Every military housing office in the field provides rental cost information for adequate and available properties in their communities. Also, economic consulting firm Robert D. Niehaus Inc., or RDN, collects nationwide cost data for the six different housing types and bedroom numbers in every military housing area. The goal is data for 70 units of every housing type in every area. The RDN surveys won’t include neighborhoods identified by census track data or military housing offices as inadequate. Utility costs are calculated using other survey data of what civilians in each housing area and housing profile spend on utilities.
The typical mid-grade enlisted with dependents will see their BAH rise Jan. 1 by $19 per month and a typical junior officer without dependents by $16.
More information on BAH, including a rate component breakdown, is available at defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bah.cfm.
As compared to the politicians rate of pay INCREASE and that is what??????????????
The on the books pay of politicians is quite modest, in many cases incomprehensibly low in fact. What concerned citizens should be concerned about is the off-the-books pay.
Getting rid of EITC Takers would solve this problem in that they could shift that money to our service families. But the Tax Bill didn’t do that.
I know not it or how much the lobbyists are paying them.
I think I may see the problem. How much of that 21 bil is for overhead/administration and how much actually goes to service personnel...?
Military stateside allowances to rise only .7%
That’s .7% more than seniors got in their social security.
military average compensation is $99,000 these days.
like all gov‘t employees they are lavishly compensates compared to the productive sector, yet all like all gov‘t employees all they do is complain & whine
The mean doesn’t tell you anything useful because the distribution is not gaussian.
The median salary for the Army in 2016 was $58K.
typical gov‘t employee misinformation - the military, like all gov‘t employees, receive largess in non-salary compensation not granted to those of us in the productive sectors. Therefore, it is a fair comparison to show total compensation which averages $99k for gov’t employees in the military.
One also should recognize the vast majority of government employees, especially those in the military, would not be compensated as lavishly if they were in the productive sector. Most of these people would be in retail earning minimum wage with nil benefits.
I’m getting nuttin for Christmas.
Donny and Nancy are Mad.
I’m getting nuttin for Christmas
The Goobermnt must think I’m Bad.
Morons, All.
I’m getting nuttin for Christmas.
Donny and Nancy are Mad.
I’m getting nuttin for Christmas
The Goobermnt must think I’m Bad.
Morons, All.
Get a grip. The average is statistically misleading because the distribution of personnel in different grades as well as the salaries are skewed. This is why median values are used to describe the central tendency for salaries. You could probably be safe using the average within a grade, but not top to bottom across the entire military.
is your argument that gov’t employees are under compensated compared to their peers in the productive sector ?
because that’s hilarious
I guess I'm some kind of privileged character and didn't know it. My notification came in the mail the other day and say's I'm getting 2% more starting in January.
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