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CHAPTER 8
PAY ENTITLEMENTS
In Disbursing Clerk 3 & 2, NAVEDTRA 12658,
you were introduced to military pay and allowances. In
this chapter, you will read about the two pay entitlement
areas that seem to cause more problems than any other
entitlements-overseas station allowances and variable
housing allowances.
After reading the information in this chapter, you
should be able to describe the purpose of these pay
entitlements, identify and use some terms associated
with them, and recognize their disbursing procedures
and required documentation. As a senior Disbursing
Clerk (DK), you will be called upon to provide
supervision in these areas.
OVERSEAS STATION
ALLOWANCES
The purpose of the overseas station allowance is to
help defray the additional costs that a member will incur
in conjunction with being assigned to an overseas area.
In this section, we will talk about three of these
allowances: (1) overseas housing allowance (OHA),
(2) cost of living allowance (COLA), and (3) temporary
lodging allowance (TLA). The purpose of the OHA is
to allow a member assigned to an overseas location to
defray a significant amount of the housing cost
associated with that duty station. The purpose of the
COLA is to help a member maintain purchasing power
whenever he or she is assigned to a duty station in a
high-cost overseas area. The purpose of the TLA is to
allow a member to be partially reimbursed for the more
than normal expenses associated with temporary
lodgings and meals.
TERMINOLOGY
Before discussing each of these entitlements in
greater detail, we need to define a few terms. For the
purpose of our discussion of overseas station
allowances, the terms associated with this type of
entitlement will be used consistently throughout this
chapter according to the definitions in the following
paragraphs.
Member With Dependents
As applied to overseas station allowances, a
member with dependents is defined as a member who
meets the following qualifications:
Is authorized to have dependents reside at or in
the vicinity of the member’s permanent duty station
(PDS) outside the continental United States (CONUS)
and whose dependents do so reside
Is joined by or who acquires dependents while
serving outside CONUS, provided the dependents are
command sponsored
Had a member spouse who was later released
from active duty or separated from the service and
remained in the vicinity of the first member’s duty
station as of the effective date of permanent change of
station (PCS) orders
The requirements do not apply to members whose
PDSs are in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or a U.S.
territory or possession if the dependents who join the
member or are acquired by the member are bona fide
residents of the respective state, commonwealth, or
territory or possession. This requirement is also waived
for officers or employees of the United States who are
stationed in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or a U.S.
territory or possession.
Member Without Dependents
In regard to overseas station allowances, a member
without dependents is defined as a member who meets
the following qualifications:
Has no dependents
Has dependents who do not reside in the vicinity
of the member’s PDS
Is considered to be a member without
dependents according to the preceding criteria,
but acquires dependents or is joined by
dependents during the remainder of a tour
Has noncommand-sponsored dependents
residing in the vicinity of the PDS
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