Financial trouble common for military families
Mar 26, 2012, 4:42 AM | Updated: 7:59 am
The stress of multiple deployments leaves more than just a strain on military families. A recent survey suggests it leaves them in debt.
“The stress factors with the families is just unbelievable,” said Roger J. Mealey, a Vietnam veteran who runs a website to aid struggling military families.
While laws give active-duty soldiers extra combat pay, provide housing allowances and exempt them from taxes, experts say, families are straining under multiple deployments, frequent relocations and the difficulty spouses have in getting and keeping jobs in new cities.
A look at the finances of 700 service members and 100 military spouses in 2010 shows large credit card balances and a steady diet of payday loans.
Twenty-seven percent of service members say they’re carrying more than $10,000 in credit card debt. Ten percent of them were carrying more than $20,000. One in three have at least four credit cards, and 21 percent of military families report they’ve used payday loans or pawn shops to make ends meet.
Compounding this debt is the inability to dig out. The unemployment rate for military spouses is 26 percent.
Service members and their families do have access to financial counselors, but many shy away from it because they don’t want their commanders to know, said Andi Wrenn, a financial and relationship counselor who has worked with service members.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
