{"id":353860,"date":"2017-01-12T11:44:46","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T16:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-law\/military\/family-employment-housing\/family-separation-allowance.html"},"modified":"2017-01-13T20:01:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T01:01:14","slug":"family-separation-allowance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/military\/family-employment-housing\/family-separation-allowance.html","title":{"rendered":"Family Separation Allowance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Family Separation Allowance<\/h1>\n
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Created by FindLaw’s team<\/a> of legal writers and editors<\/i><\/p>\n\n | Last updated\n

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Dependents are typically limited to spouses and minor children that share a primary residence. Long-term romantic partners and fianc\u00e9es are typically not considered dependents. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n

Soldiers need to be highly mobile. As situations develop, troops may need to be relocated at a moment’s notice. The United States tries to support its soldiers by providing benefits to their families during deployment. The family separation allowance is a benefit available to active duty regular army troops that are required to be away from their permanent duty station for more than 30 continuous days where their dependents are not residing at or near the temporary station. Read on to learn more about the types of family separation allowances and who qualifies.<\/p>\r\n

Who Qualifies?<\/h2>\r\n

Family separation allowances are only available for military members<\/a> with legal dependents<\/a>. Adult children are typically not dependents (except in limited circumstances, such as where they have a serious disability.) An elderly parent may also qualify as a dependent immediate relative. Other relationships typically do not qualify as dependent immediate relatives.<\/p>\r\n

There are also circumstances in which a person whose relationship might otherwise qualify does not. Benefits also may not be available in situations where a soldier and their spouse are legally separated<\/a>, a minor child is in the legal custody of another person, or the dependent relative has been institutionalized for a year or more.<\/p>\r\n

Where both spouses are enlisted in the military and are both assigned to qualifying duty assignments<\/a>, they may both claim and receive family separation allowances. This allowance continues until one of the members is no longer assigned to a qualifying duty assignment.<\/p>\r\n

Types of Family Separation Allowance<\/h2>\r\n

There are three different kinds of family separation allowances available to the dependent family of soldiers.<\/p>\r\n