460-7      SPECIAL RULES FOR A SPOUSE IN THE MILITARY

 

Members of the military receive their wages through the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES).   This statement reflects a military person’s monthly payments and allowances, tax deductions, and other allotments that are deducted from their gross pay.  See Addendum 2 for a detailed list of LESLeave and Earnings Statement Entitlement, Deduction and Allotment definitions and instructions on how to count each in the military household’s benefit determination.

 

How the resources, income, and deductions of military personnel affect the household’s benefits depends on the program policy.  

 

See APA MS 460-1G for the definition of a deployed spouse.

 

A.  Resources

 

Types of resources typical to a military person’s household are as follows:

 

  1. Joint bank account.  Any deposits made by the deployed military person will count as income to the household in the month received and as a resource the following month.  See APA MS 441-2P and 431-2A.
  2. Vehicles.  There is no special treatment for the vehicles of military spouses.  See APA MS 432-2A.
  3. The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).  This is a form of a govenment employee retirement and is an excluded resource.  See APA MS 431-2G
  4. Savings bonds.  The case in value of a savings bond is a countable resource once the funds can be accessed.  See APA MS 431-2D.

 

 

B.  Income

 

Types of income typical to a military person’s household are as follows:

 

1.  Countable Income

 

Payments and allowances shown in the Entitlements section of the LESLeave and Earnings Statement will be considered income.  The most common of these are base pay, or basic pay, basic allowance for subsistence (BAS), a military person’s food allowance, and basic allowance for housing (BAH).

 

  1. Housing and food allowance (BAS, BAQ or BAH):

 

 

Example:

Tyson and his wife move to a new off-base location. He receives his monthly rent on his LESLeave and Earnings Statement.  His BAHBasic Allowance for Housing allotment in the entitlement column is $1500. Tyson’s landlord verifies that his monthly rent is $1300.  The $1500 BAHBasic Allowance for Housing is countable income.

 

  1. Bonuses for reenlistment and special pay for warfare

  1. Clothing Mainenance Allowance (CMA)

 

 

Example:

William receives his LESLeave and Earnings Statement and it shows a CMAClothing Maintenance Allowance of $125 in the entitlement column.  In the deduction column, the CMAClothing Maintenance Allowance is listed as $100.  Even though William did not spend the entire amount of the clothing allowance the entire $125 is countable income.

 

  1. Excluded Income

 

 

 

 

 

Combat pay is excluded as income.  Disregard any amount of combat pay that goes to the household in excess of the military person’s pre-deployment earnings. Combat pay will be listed in the Entitlements column, and may appear as follows:

 

 

 

Note:

Combat zones are designated by an Executive Order from the President as areas in which the U.S. Armed Forces are engaging or have engaged in combat.  For combat pay to be excluded as income, the military person must be deployed to one of the combat zones listed at:  http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=108331,00.html  

                                                                                        

Budgeting Combat Pay

                           

Once the military person is deployed to a combat zone:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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MC #33 (3/12)