Retiring or separating from the service soon? Congratulations- you’re about to be considered as an honored veteran, and we sincerely thank you for your service.
But, hold up! Before we get ahead of ourselves, have you made plans for when you get out of the service and enter civilian life?
To help yourself with all the preparations and to smoothly transition into civilian life, we highly encourage you to take advantage of your terminal leave.
Which brings us to your question at hand: Do you get BAH while on terminal leave?
The answer is YES, you do get BAH while on terminal leave. Any active duty service member eligible to receive Basic Housing Allowance (BAH) will continue to receive such benefit throughout the entire duration of his terminal leave, if he chooses to take such leave.
Want to know more about terminal leave, your BAH rates, and other benefits you can get while on leave? Keep reading!
What is Terminal Leave?
Nearing your separation or retirement from the military, there are bound to be a lot of preparations to be made, such as relocating to your old family home or to a new one, deciding whether to go to school or find a job (and do the necessary preparations for it), and so many more.
But, doing all these things after you retire translates to weeks or months without a paycheck. Unless you have some fat savings and don’t have to worry about your finances, you need to figure out a better way to go about this- and that is by taking a terminal leave.
Terminal leave is paid leave that is taken right before your contract of obligation in the service expires.
It comes from all your accrued leave that you haven’t been using (and are not part of the “use it or lose it” accrued leave in excess of the 60-day limit).
You can find how many days of leave you can use as a terminal leave under the Expiration Term of Service (ETS) Balance on your Leave and Earnings Statement (LES).
Note that this number is an approximation, and can change if you take a leave between now and your date of separation, as well as if you earn extra leave days under special circumstances.
Do I Get BAH if I Take Terminal Leave?
When you're on terminal leave, you're essentially already out of the service because you are actually required to process all your separation or retirement papers before you go on leave
(meaning, after the last day of your terminal leave, you are, once again, a civilian. No need to report to duty anymore!)
Although, since a terminal leave is just like an ordinary paid leave, it goes to say that you are entitled to continue to receive your salary and your benefits while on terminal leave.
This includes your Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), among other benefits. This means that you can enjoy and make the most of your leave without any worries!
But, the question is, how much BAH will you get during your terminal leave?
Is My Terminal Leave BAH for My HOR or ETS location?
You may or may not have been receiving a housing allowance as an active duty service member, depending on your living situation- such as whether you are staying in the barracks.
But once you start on your terminal leave, you may be entitled to receive a housing allowance benefit.
The rate of how much BAH you can get depends on the address you provide as your ETS address (as opposed to your Home of Record (HOR) address).
So, for example, even if your permanent residence is listed as in Ohio, if you are going to be residing in, let’s say, San Diego, once you get out of the service, then you’ll get San Diego BAH rates.
This is if you are not currently receiving a housing allowance that is for “with dependent housing allowance for dependents residing separately,” as if you are on active duty service and residing in Hawaii, while your spouse and children are way back in New Jersey.
If so, you will simply continue to receive BAH at this rate throughout your terminal leave.
As you're approaching terminal leave and want to explore what states you want to live in, you can use this nifty interactive county map tool here.
What are Other Benefits that I get to Keep if I Take Terminal Leave?
Here is the best part:
As we hinted earlier, a housing allowance or BAH is not the only benefit that you can still get and take advantage of while you are on your hard earned and well-deserved terminal leave. Aside from your base pay (and most of your other additional pays), you continue to receive benefits such as:
- Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS)
- COLA, FLPP, etc
- Health and dental insurance
- Tricare
- Use of base facilities
- Military shopping and uniform allowance
Given all these amazing perks, there is absolutely no reason for you not to use and take advantage of your terminal leave!
Want to find out about 29,000+ opportunities you can grab with your GI Bill benefits after your time in the military? Visit milversity.com/explore
