Military Pay & Student Loans

I'm not very happy about this:

"A presidential commission on reducing the deficit has recommended freezing basic military pay and housing allowances for three years starting in 2011, according to a draft report of the commission’s recommendations posted online Wednesday." (Military.com)

Part of this proposal includes decreasing medical benefits, so this isn't just a freeze, it's a pay decrease. I think that there are probably better ways to reduce defense spending and this commission is attempting to take a shortcut rather than work at finding better solutions. Active duty military members already get paid relatively little for what they do. 2011's proposed pay increase (1.9%) is the lowest since the all-volunteer military was started in the 70s.

If you would like to write your elected officials about this, click here. I don't usually do stuff like this, but they make it super easy.

Also, for active duty military who took out student loans, you can apply for what appears to be an indefinite deferment with no interest and no payments. It has to be an "FFEL" category loan, which includes Stafford loans. Here's the form you'll need for UHEAA loans (the first page gives more details).

www.uheaa.org/pdfs/FFELPForm_Military_Deferment_Request.pdf