They have to pay for their food??

[Chris A.]

My son's paycheck was over $300 less this week, and he says his shipmates had the same problem. At first I thought it was an equipment charge but he says it was for food! Evidently thy're assessed a food charge at the start of every month. It would have been nice to be prepared for it and not had it dropped on them like a ton of bricks. Where in the regs does it say they have to pay for their own food? Anyone have any info on this?

[Ron]

It gets added to their check, and then deducted off.

If you use the search function you'll find a couple of discussions that cover the details of this.

So really the Navy pays for it, they just process it through your check in a tax free manner.

[Gwen from Pullman]

But I don't understand that if they get paid $300 less then what they were expecting to get, how can you say it was added back in? If it was added in and then taken off... the end result should be what they expected? My son was whining about the same thing last night. He is Pcola awaiting the start of A school. Will this be the same when they are assigned to a unit after A school? Seems it is a bit deceiving on the Navy's part to say you are going to pay you "X" amount while you are in the Navy and then neglect to tell them the rest of the "story" that they will have to pay for this and that all the way through their Navy career. I don't get it.

[Chris A.]

Thank you Gwen, glad I'm not the only one who's confused by all this. I understand that they give them a food allowance but everything is so convoluted....there has to be an easier way. My son has bills due at the beginning of the month, college loan, phone etc. and having his paycheck come up so short is hard, especially since they have to pay for every little thing (name tags, someone to sew on name tags, and of course,uniforms etc. etc.) they just nickel and dime them. As for the info about all this that they were supposed to get at indoc......my son never managed to finish indoc as they classed him up 3 days after he arrived...though I shouldn't complain about that of course.

[Gwen from Pullman]

Thanks Chris.. glad I'm not the only one in the dark on this pay thing. I just wished they had spelled this out better in the DEP training he got so they'd know the end result on their pay stub won't be what they were originally told. I'll counsel him more on talking to his head officers about all this so he understands. He needs to get his username and password yet to be able to check his paystub on-line and see what all his deductions are. Yes, I agree.. I think they do nickle and dime then to death... doesn't seem right. And then there's the airlines... thats a whole nether sore spot!!

[Maryanne-Michael's mom]

Chris, You can have his student/college loan deferred. My son also is also opted to have the college repayment, so Navy will pay off his student loans..1/3 each year. Do you have Power of attorney? You can do this for him. Let me know if you need additional info from me
Maryanne

[Carlotta]

Chris it seems as if the Navy never warns the sailors when they will have deductions from their pay. I gues they feel if they giveth they can taketh away(lol).

[Hoppi aka Angie]

The Sailors go though a class where they are explained about thier LES (leave and earning statement). He can also talk to any of the staff where he is at (guessing by the pic, he is out of BC).

Ask your son to look at his LES, on the left had side is the pay, the middle is the deductions. It should have him being paid in the left side and than it being removed in the middle section.

http://www.dfas.mil/

DFAS are the people who pay the people in the miltiary, above is a hyperlink for it.

[Maryanne-Michael's mom]

This is the website for them to access everything. Check it out

http://www.lifelines.navy.mil/lifelines/MilitaryLife/PayandBenefits...
Maryanne

[Becky]

They also pay roughly $900 for thier uniforms.

[Vickie - Rooney's mom]

My son hasn't received an LES. How does he get a user name and password? Is the food deduction $300 every month, does it continue once he's on the ship?

[Hoppi aka Angie]

The food deduction will continue once he is on a ship, unless the ship is in the ship yards than they normally don't take the money as there is no galley. Understand the Sailor also gets money for food, than the Navy takes it away. So the Sailor is NOT having money taken away from his base pay.

Sailor gets the money for food is 1) on shore duty and able to live out in town 2) when TAD from the ship to school 3) when no galley is avalible for chow. Sure there is a few others.


As far as his LES, he was given that info in BC, if for some reason he lost the password he can go over to PSD. Or if he remembers his log in (which is normally SS#) he can try to reset his password at the web site below.
https://mypay.dfas.mil/mypay.aspx

[KELLY]

My son in is Biloxi Mississippi for C school. He is on an Air Force base. He no longer gets a lump sum taken out of his salary but has to pay cash for each meal that he eats in the galley. It does not seem to be cheap either. He said the other day his lunch was $5. Three meals a day at an average of 5 buck a meal is $450 a month. (I doubt they get that much "given" to them for food). The only good thing is that he is not charged for meals he does not eat there. I know that when he was in Pensacola they took out of his check and there were many many days that he did not eat in the galley. I am always surprised when he tells me something he has to pay for, such as uniforms, hair cuts, patches, dry cleaning, patches sewn on, etc.