Military Pay Allotments

As a Servicemember you receive several types of pay.? An allotment is simply the act of taking money out of your paycheck and giving it to someone else. This process is not unique to the military, but it is in the military that it has that term affixed to it. Two types of allotments exist, Non Discretionary, and discretionary.? Discretionary simply means it is done voluntarily and is up to the Servicemember.? Non-Discretionary is when the Servicemember has little or no choice in the matter.? A mandatory allotment is normally a Non Discretionary allotment.

Discretionary:? Allotments that can be stopped and started are Discretionary allotments.? These are normally started or stopped by the Servicemember visiting the base financial office.? A Servicemember cannot set up more than one allotment that is to be paid to the same person or organization.? Allotments that are set up to be paid to organizations, or non-individuals have to be set up to be direct deposit or via electronic transfer.? If you set up a specific allotment for an individual that person can be paid via either a mailed physical paper check or by direct deposit.? Here are some of the various kinds of allotments:

Allotments to Relatives or Dependents:? Enlisted members or Officers can set up an allotment to send a portion of their pay to a divorced spouse, a relative, or a dependent.? These can be set up as a result of administration input or sometimes set up by the individual Servicemember. The allotment can sometimes be made payable to a financial organization as a credit for the individual named in the allotment, a special joint account of the allottee and the allotter (such as for a child and Servicemember), or it can be made payable sometimes directly to the individual allottee. Such an allotment can be stopped or started after they begin by action of the Servicemember.

Allotments For Rent:? A deduction allotment can be set up by the Military Department Secretary for payment of rent on a specific dwelling.? Such a dwelling will have the Servicemember and dependents that will include Children, spouse, and any other dependents depending on the circumstances.

Allotments For Insurance:? Any Military Servicemember can set up such an allotment, for insurance payments for the Servicemember or their dependents.? This can be for private insurance, or for their Servicemember NSLI/SGLI type insurance.  There are other special regulations concerning allotments made for insurance.

Allotments To Financial Groups:? Both enlisted and Officers can set up these types of allotments, to send money to savings institutions, banks, credit companies, or similar type businesses for the benefit of the Servicemember or dependents.