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NEWS | Aug. 11, 2016

BAH and the DA 5960 HRC Scrub

On 01AUG16, the United States Army Reserve Command (USARC) Military Pay Auditing Team was alerted that Human Resources Command (HRC) had conducted a scrub of DA 5960’s (Authorization to Start, Stop, or Change Basic Allowance for Quarters (BAQ), and/or Variable Housing Allowance (VHA)). 

The scrub is being directed by the Secretary of the Army based on the results of the FY2015 Army financial statement audit. The results of the audit showed that there was a lack in key supporting documentation to justify payments of Soldier entitlements.

The scrub HRC conducted looked for Soldier’s who had missing DA 5960’s as well as Soldier’s who had a current DA 5960 but had no supporting documentation. For the BAH With Dependent rate, there needs to be supporting documentation uploaded into their Interactive Personnel Electronic Records Management System (iPERMS). iPERMS is the only system of record for auditable documentation in the Military.

As of now, these Soldiers have 60 days to complete their records in order to keep their current Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) rate. Completing their record includes uploading a signed and certified DA 5960 and necessary supporting documentation. 

If they fail to upload the appropriate documents, their BAH will be adjusted based on what documents they have in their iPERMS. For Soldiers with no documentation their BAH will be reduced to the single rate at the end of 60 days.

At the end of the 60 days, if the records are not updated, the Soldiers BAH will be adjusted. Those Soldiers who now have a BAH rate that was adjusted to the Without Dependent rate will stay at the Without Dependent rate until they can provide the appropriate supporting documentation for the With Dependent rate. Supporting documentation includes but is not limited to marriage license. Birth certificates, divorce decree, child support agreement, Department of Defense (DD) Form 137 series, etc.

Effective immediately, every Soldier will need to annually recertify their entitlement to BAH by completing a new DA 5960.  The recertification will be accomplished in conjunction with the required DD Form 93 (Record of Emergency Data) and SGLV. All of these things needs to be current and present during the Annual Personnel and Financial Record Reviews in the iPERMS Record Review Tool (RRT). 

If every Soldier completes the Personnel and Financial Record Reviews annually, completes the DD 93, SGLV and DA 5960 then every Soldier will have those auditable documents present in iPERMS.