This is her experience with her first NAVY PCS MOVE a few weeks ago.
If you have any questions you can feel free to email her or ask your questions below. Leave an email address below if you want a personal response.
We just
did our first Navy PCS. We moved from Rockford, IL to San Diego,
CA. I wanted to write it all down in hopes that others about to PCS get
all the info they can. I'll start with general information about the move
and entitlements and incentive. At the bottom, I will give our specific
situations with actual numbers and also some info on getting into military
housing, if that is what you choose to do. First, here are the
definitions:
HHG -
Household goods
PPO -
Personal Property Office
DPS -
Defense Personal Property System
POV -
Privately Owned Vehicle
POA -
Power of Attorney - There are different kinds of these, if you are a spouse and
taking care of the move while your servicemember is absent, you will need to
make sure you have all the right ones. Your servicemember can have one
drawn up on base or sometimes even on a ship and sent to you. You do not
have to be present. Ask for a POA that will cover lease signing,
financial transactions, and if it's tax season, one for taxes. The legal
department should know what to do.
Reimbursement
amount - the amount of money the government expects it to cost were they to
move your HHGs for you.
Incentive
amount - The amount of money you get to keep if you come in under budget (95%
of the reimbursement amount).
PCS -
Permanent Change of Station - when the military orders a servicemember to move
for duty. This can be accompanied (with dependents) or unaccompanied (without
dependents). The military will pay for your move and if it is
accompanied, they will also pay to move your dependents. You can do it
two ways: have the government hire movers to pack and ship your things
(government move) or do it yourself and get reimbursed. The do it
yourself move is what I am writing about, it used to be called a DITY, but is
now a PPM.
PPM -
Personally Procured Move - You cannot do a PPM if you're PCSing overseas (which
includes HI). You arrange to move your HHG yourself and get
reimbursed. You can do this in whatever manner you wish, you can:
hire a moving company, or pack yourself and rent a moving truck to drive, or
pack and rent a container or trailer that someone else transports after you
load it. There is also an incentive for you to get it done cheaply.
There is some secret formula based on the weight of your HHG and the distance
you're traveling that determines how much the government expects to have to pay
to move you in a government move. That is your maximum reimbursement
amount. Also, the servicemember has a weight limit based on paygrade,
which can be found here: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/assignments/l/blpropweight.htm
You can go over the weight limit on a PPM, but you'll still only
get paid the maximum reimbursement amount, even if you pay more to move it.
If you
are close to a base, I recommend going to the PPO and getting someone to
counsel you. If this is your first PCS or first accompanied PCS, you may
live no where near a base. In that case, you can do self-counseling
online at www.move.mil
The service member will have to register in DPS to get a username
and password. A note about the password: The passwords are random,
VERY long and have lots of different characters in them, not just letters and
numbers. You cannot change your password, but you can request a new one
every time. If you are a spouse, make sure your service member gives you
the answers to the personal questions s/he selected when getting a password
(favorite color, favorite fruit, favorite pet's name, etc). Be sure you
write them down exactly as they were typed, you don't want to lock up the
account. You will need to get a new password occasionally. I have
found that copying and pasting into a notepad or wordpad document then saving
it on the computer is helpful. Then you can just copy and paste into the
password box. No one wants to have to type out all those characters every
time.
Once you
are logged into DPS through Move.mil, you will start filling in the info.
You will need a copy of the orders to do this. You will set up a
"shipment" and be able to select PPM as your method. You will
also be asked to estimate the weight of your HHG. I suggest
underestimating this weight. You will be able to get an advanced
operating allowance of 60% of the total allowance. If your weight is less
than your estimate, and the advance ended up being more than your allowance,
you will have to pay back the difference. So once you enter the weight,
it will figure the total expected cost for a government move. This is
your maximum reimbursement amount. Your incentive amount is 95% of this
number. I will use nice round numbers as examples. If the 100%
number is $10,000, your incentive is $9,500. If you only spend $6,000 to
move your HHGs, they reimburse you for that, then you get the keep the extra
$3,500.
After
you have completed the self-counseling (or in-person counseling at a base), you
will have to sign forms. You will have to mail, fax, email, or bring in
person: copies of orders (maybe previous orders and new orders), copy of the
Page 2 (called Dependency Application/Record of Emergency Data, it is form #
NAVPERS 1070/602), and if this is a first PCS you'll need a document called
Enlistment Contract (For, DD 4/1) that will show the home of record.
Reimbursement for the move will only be for HHGs at the location listed on the
Home of Record. If you've moved since then, call the PPO to see what
needs to be included. If you are a spouse and the service member will not
be present at the in-person counseling, you must have a POA.
For me,
all the Navy stuff was the hardest. The arranging of the move was
simple. I called around, got quotes on different options and compared
benefits. I scheduled a date, but made sure I knew the cancellation
policy just in case. You never know what might come up last minute.
Figure out how you're getting to your next station. Are you
driving? Flying? That may make a difference in how you ship.
We have two cars, two kids and two large dogs. The dogs and kids won't
all fit in the backseat of either car, so we had to each drive one. If
you end up having to ship a vehicle, talk to the PPO first to determine if
there are more forms. I have no experience in that. Also, read
below about travel entitlements so you can plan your pickup/delivery dates
appropriately. Arrange for your packing materials, keep receipts for all of it,
boxes, tape, anything non-reusable is reimbursable.
Then,
move. : ) The easy part - hopefully! Save every
receipt.
After
you arrive, you can set up your claim package for the rest of the
reimbursement. You'll need the forms you got from the counseling process,
orders, weight tickets of the empty and full truck (VERY IMPORTANT!), rental
contracts, all your fuel (if you're driving the moving truck) toll and
equipment receipts, the enlistment contract. Don't worry, they give you a
check list. Gather it all together, make copies and/or scan them into a
computer. You can email PDF files to them or mail it snail mail.
We
estimated that we had 6000lbs, which for the distance we were moving, would pay
a total of $5147.81 to move us. My husband is an E-3 at the time of the
move, so he is allowed 8000lbs. Our incentive amount worked out to:
$4890.42. We received 60% of our incentive amount before the move,
$2934.25. That was deposited at the first payday after we completed the
counseling. I just finished the paperwork, we had 8080lbs of HHGs, so our
incentive amount for that weight (I played with different weight estimates in
DPS before finalizing to get an idea) is $6344.24. We only spent
$2716.62, so we get to keep $3627.62. Not bad.
and fill it out for the bases you think you might get. This
tool, called HEAT - Housing Early Application Tool, is designed to be used even
if you don't have orders. The representative from HEAT will send you info
on the bases and when you do get orders, you will be transferred to the correct
person at that base. I was able to download the housing application and
fill it out and email it back.
TRAVEL -
You get paid for your travel. The military expects you to travel 350
miles per day. So you take the distance you're traveling and divide by
350 and that's the maximum number of days the service member will have off for
travel. Travel time is not counted for leave time. Ours came out to
6 days (you round to the higher number if it is not an even number. 5.23
= 6 days). You do not have to take that time, but if you plan well, you
can also make money here. Plus you get to spend a little extra time with
your sweetie. If you are allowed 6 days but only take 4, the service
member doesn't get to take those extra 2 days, they're forfeited. You
also won't get paid Per Diem for those days. And you cannot stay within
100 miles of the duty station for it to count as a travel day. There are
a few entitlements for PCSing.
MALT -
(Monetary Allowance in Liue of Transportation) Basically, if you're getting
yourself there instead of having the Navy arrange transportation, they'll pay
you. I'm not sure what it is by plane, but by car they pay 23 cents per
mile per vehicle being
driven. We each had to drive a car, so we got paid 23 cents
per mile times 2 vehicles times 2004 miles. It more than paid for
gas.
Per Diem
- This is the amount they pay for food and lodging while you're
traveling. It is currently per day: $86 for the servicemember,
$64.50 for dependents over age of 12, and $43 for dependents under 12.
Keep all of your receipts. You do not have to itemize to receive Per
Diem, but keep them for tax purposes. Any profit amount for your move is
taxable, so if you get a per diem and spend some of it, you can claim it as a deduction
on your taxes because not all of the money paid to you was profit. Keep
your fuel receipts for the same reason.
.