BAH Questions

[jesterx88]

Can someone explain the BAH to me. I am confused on how it is figured. Does my husband qualify if he has dependents alone or is it based on housing. If my mortgage is in a different state then where he is serving does that qualify? Any info would be helpful.

Thank you

[Kira]

When you Spouse is in training you get BAH depending where his/her Home of Record is established. So for instance mine was Massachusetts. It didn't matter that he was in Oklahoma training. Now when we moved here ( we are active duty ) it changed even though this isn't our home of record we get BAH based on rates for Ft Campbell. Make sense? Also yes it does make a difference if you have dependents..as far as I remember the spouse counts as a dependent so you would get the with dependent rate.

Go HERE: http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/perdiem/bah.html
ENTER your zip code and his rank ( E-1 if he has no college credits going in ) and you can get an exact amount they are giving right now for your location!

Now with that said if your current mortgage is $1,000 but the BAH is $800 you would not receive $1,000..only what the BAH is for your area.

I HTH!!

[jesterx88]

Thank you. My situation is a little different and I do not think I explained it well on my last post. So let me try again. Currently my husband is in the Wisconsin National Guard and we are living with my parents in their home. We do give them some money every month for food and rent or whatever they choose to use it for. However, my husband and I own a condo in a different state other than Wisconsin and we are currently still paying on the mortgage until it sells. We are looking at renting a place out here but it wont be finished until Nov 1st and I have heard you have to have a rental agreement for 6 months to qualify. So will it be based on us living with my parents or owning a mortgage and will we lose it if we move out of my parents into a place here before he leaves?

Any info is welcome.

[Kira]

What's his Home of Record? His home of record is the state he said he was from when he signed his contract. You can find that info on his ERB.

He could be part of the Wisconsin National Guard, but his HOR is TN, let's say. He would get BAH for TN. Now if let's say his HOR is Wisconsin but you own a condo in TN, unless say your HOR is TN ( valid drivers license, property, registered vehicles all prove residency ) then you would get BAH for your zip in Wisconsin.

I never had to show any proof of what I was paying for rent or how long we lived there so I really don't think that matters at all. It is just based on the zip.

They really don't care where you own property, what state you worked in..all that matters for BAH is his HOR. If his HOR is the state where you have the property then you will get BAH for that area. If it's not then you get BAH wherever it is that he has on his contract as HOR. For an example a friend is reserves in Virginia, he was moved to a unit in Philadelphia for deployment. His wife gets BAH for her zip in Virginia not BAH for his unit based out of Philadelphia.

Now of course I could be wrong..but this is my understanding of BAH. I'm just not familiar with National Guard, we are AD.
You can call Military One Source and they can answer any questions you have as well!!

[Kira]

OK so I did some research and found this:
http://www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/reserve-and-guard-pay/bah-2
This is info if your less than 30days..this does not matter where you are located..it is called BAH Type II.
Great than 30 days it is called BAH Type I and it's based on HOR.

[jesterx88]

Thank you so much. I am just getting a little stressed trying to figure everything out. I am the type of person that doesn't like the unknown and has to have everything planned out. I guess I need to get use to the unknown.

[Kira]

Your Welcome! I am the same way..I bugged our recruiter and luckily he was very honest and told us the truth. I also googled like crazy..lol.

[Erin]

Basically, legally your home of record should be where you live as long as it's over a certain period of time ( I want to say 30 days). So if you are living in WA for at least 30 days you are legally required to change your home of record to WA and therefore get BAH there. While he is in training (or on an unaccompanied tour) you get BAH based on where YOU (the spouse) lives.

You get BAH regardless of if you are renting a place or not. You can stay with friends/relatives...be homeless I guess, and you'll get BAH. You don't need a rental agreement or anything like that. Now, his unit may require an agreement in his file or something, but that should not effect your BAH in any way.

[Tissa]

For National Guard guys their Home of Record is going to stay where they lived when they enlisted unless they update it with their unit. Usually before a training session or before deployment their unit will ask you to update all your personal info including you're home address, dependents etc.
Often they will ask for some proof of rent or mortgage. If you are living with your parents and want that BHA then have your parents write up a rental agreement and get in Notarized. There are lots of sample rental agreements on the web just google it. I've never heard of a 6 month rental history requirement but we've always lived at the same address.
The 30 day thing is correct if you're husband's training is under 30 days they get BHA type II which sucks cause its a lot less in California at least. Also always check if his training is just over the 30 days that you get the BHA for your area a few times they have tried to give us type II when we should of gotten the active one.