Geo-Bachelor at IFS/API

[hm2anderson]

I did a search with no clear answer for my specific situation or anything recent.

I check into API 6 July and I have follow-on orders written to Whiting.
My house has not sold so my wife and child will be staying at my current duty station. This presents quite a financial hardship if I have to fork out rent even with some roomies. My BAH would drop slightly also (Charleston SC - Pcola).

I know I am not eligible to collect per diem because I have follow-on orders to the same geographic location.

I called the BOQ in Pensacola and they said "don't do" Geo-Bachelors...

I called the BOQ in Whiting and they said I had to have permission from the base CMC. Does this seem right?

Should I talk to the Flight Management officer/My Detailer to get an order modification to drop the follow-on orders so I can collect Per Diem?

I'm sure someone was in this situation...Please Advise

 

[navywareagle]

you will get per diem if you have follow on orders and you should get seperation allowance.

 

[scoober78]

You don't need follow on orders to a different geographic location to collect per diem. I was a geo in Pcola. Long story short, I had follow on orders to Whiting but didn't think I wanted to stay there so I didn't move my wife because she had a very good job. I lived in the Ashton Inn about a mile from the main gate. I collected BAH for the location where my wife was, and received per diem for my expenses in Pensacola. You can receive it as long as you do not sign a permanent lease...ie...live in an efficiency motel or the Q.

The other kicker is that living with friends will not cut it because you must be able to present receipts to justify your per diem. If you present a "receipt" from your buddy, they will not pay your per diem.

I enjoyed the hell out of it... I had a daily maid, no utilities, cable, a pool...and was a 10 minute door to door commute from API....there is a nice watering hole next door as well. PM with other questions.

 

[hm2anderson]

you should get seperation allowance.

FSA wouldn't be authorized...

A servicemember with dependents is entitled to a family separation allowance (FSA) of $250 per month. This is in addition to any per diem or other entitlements such as family separation housing allowance presuming that:

• Movement of dependents to the permanent duty station at Government expense is not authorized. This presupposes that the dependents do not already live at or near that station
• The member is on duty on board a ship away from the home port of the ship for a period of more than 30 continuous days
• The member is on temporary duty away from the permanent duty station for a continuous period of more than 30 days and the dependents do not live at or near the temporary duty station

Servicemembers that choose to serve an unaccompanied tour of duty at a permanent duty station where the movement of dependents at Government expense is authorized, are not entitled to the family separation allowance under the first condition noted above.
In situations where servicemembers are married to other servicemember, family separation allowance is authorized for one member if the members were residing together immediately before the separation.

 

[VetteMuscle427]

Also, don't take anything the NASP BOQ says as correct. They are the laziest people on earth... the kinda that work very had to not do any work. Every time I have tried to get a room there, they have told me they were booked, or I wasn't allowed etc etc, and you talk to another person adn they hook you up. They suck.

 

[FMRAM]

[/COLOR]A servicemember with dependents is entitled to a family separation allowance (FSA) of $250 per month.
\

Let's see if this adds up...

Services from a local scarlet woman...x2 $200
Services from a 1-800-party line (paid to tell you that you are scum and they want a divorce)x25 min $50

Yea that just about covers it.

 

[navywareagle]

at our psd brief for check in, everyone with follow on orders (even if they had already signed permenent leases or living with roomates or with a buddy, etc) were authorized to get per diem. there are some loop holes that you will learn about. i dont remember them.

 

[jus2mch]

Per Diem

Make sure you know exactly what your orders state. For instance My orders say I am PCSing to do temporary duty involving flying period the end. Some peoples orders say they are going TAD and then TAD again. You just have to match the wording in your orders to the wording in the instruction.

This is the gospel. http://dodtravelregs.hqda.pentagon.mil/propub/template.htm?view=main

Make sure you are viewing JTFR 2007 July most current.

This is just about getting a place out in town.
Change 247
U4B-7
7/1/07


U4131 REIMBURSEMENT FOR AN APARTMENT, HOUSE,OR RECREATIONAL VEHICLE WHILE TDY

A. General. An apartment, house, or recreational vehicle (includes a mobile home, a camper, a camping trailer, or self-propelled mobile recreational vehicle) qualifies as quarters. Par. U4129-E applies for lodging with friends/relatives.

Effective 20 September 2004
B. Expenses. Allowable lodging expenses are:

1. Rent of the apartment, house, or recreational vehicle;

2. Rent of a parking space for the recreational vehicle;

Effective 23 August 2005
3. Rent of appropriate and necessary furniture, such as a stove, refrigerators, chairs, tables, beds, sofas, television, and a vacuum cleaner;

Effective 23 August 2005
NOTE: Some rental agreements (i.e., furniture rental agreements) include options-to-buy clauses that result in the renter owning the rented item (i.e., furniture) at the end of the contract term. A traveler may be reimbursed for the cost of such a rental agreement (i.e., cost of furniture rental as part of the lodging cost) while on TDY if the traveler has no other choice but to enter into such an agreement. However, if the traveler exercises the purchase option, the amount that is being credited toward the purchase must be returned to the Government by the traveler if paid to the traveler as part of the travel claim settlement (B-259520, 7 December 1995).

4. Connection, use, and disconnection costs of utilities including electricity, natural gas, water, fuel oil and sewer charges;

5. Dumping fees;

6. Shower fees;

7. Maid fees and cleaning charges;

8. Monthly telephone use fees (does not include installation charges and unofficial long distance calls. When a personally-owned cellular phone is used in lieu of an installed phone, the monthly cell phone fee may not be claimed. See par. U1405 for official communications.);

9. The costs of special user fees such as cable TV charges and plug‑in charges for automobile head bolt heaters, if ordinarily included in the price of a hotel/motel room in the area concerned; and

10. Exchange fee (but not the annual maintenance fee) paid by a member to acquire use of timeshare lodgings at the TDY point (B-254626, 17 February 1994).

In determining the daily amount of expense items which do not accrue on a daily basis such as cost for connection/ disconnection of utilities, dumping fees, shower fees, cleaning charges, monthly telephone use fee, etc., these expenses may be averaged over the number of days the employee is authorized per diem during the entire TDY trip.

 

[trvsmrtn]

I was in the same boat 2 years ago. Check the ACC code in your orders. Mine for API was 341 which made me entitled to per diem, but the detailer added a line in the special instruction section that told PSD the ACC code should be 342.

The BOQ at Corry was full and the BOQ at Pensacola said they don't take flight students, but I convinced them to let me stay there for a week. During that time I went to PSD to apply for per diem. They told me that I wasn't eligible because of the 342 ACC. I called the detailer and got an ordmod which changed me back to 341. Then a room at the Corry Q opened, so I got a room there and didn't bother with per diem. I didn't have to get any special permission from the CMC. In fact, all I saw at the Corry Q were API students.

Basically, the problem is that 341 is temdu for less than X number of weeks which entitles you to per diem and 342 is temdu for more than X number of weeks which is handled as a PDS. API is technically only 6 weeks which makes it a 341, but since guys can sit there for up to a year, it would cost a fortune to pay all API students per diem for that long, so almost everyone gets that blurb in their orders changing them to 342.

From what I saw, this was the case for priors with follow on orders to Whiting. Priors who went through the old BOOST program were similar because they weren't initial accessions. ROTC program guys with no prior time were a different story altogether.