A temporary duty assignment in the military can come at any time for any active service or military personnel. During this time, you will find yourself being shuttled off to a location that you may not have picked as your number one vacation spot. You may or may not be able to take your family with you, and you could be hundreds of miles away from your nearest relatives. Luckily, the government takes care of your temporary housing for your TDY, and the arrangement is often not too shabby.
Length of Stay
Depending on the service arm that you are service, the length of your TDY can vary. Generally, the stay for a TDY is fairly short, ranging from two days to two months in duration. Certain areas, such as the Department of Defense, require that TDY must be shorter than six months in duration. Some agencies actually consider anything over 45 days to be an extended TDA, meaning the employee will be reimbursed for part of the expenses before the end of the assignment. Anything longer than the six month mandate is considered to be a permanent change of station.
Living Arrangements
Arrangements for living are taken care of, for the most part. Permanent housing is provided for almost all governmental agencies, which include fully furnished apartments for longer term stays. These apartments have all the amenities of home, including fully equipped kitchens, living areas, bed rooms, and laundry rooms. There is no cost to the employee for using these amenities, as it is all considered to be a travel accommodation.
Some areas that employees might travel to have barrack style-housing, depending on rank, service area, and length of stay. These living arrangements come with a bed, a personal or communal bathroom, and on-site laundry. Sometimes communal kitchens are also provided.
The military provides a per diem rate for housing if housing is not provided. We talked with Altus AFB Crash Pad about what this means, and they said “if you plan it out right, you could make money on living in cheaper accommodations for the duration of your stay if you are in certain service arms. Some arms of the military handle the lodging per diem differently, however, so you could lose out on that opportunity.”
Covered Expenses
The Government covers nearly all expenses while you are out on your temporary duty. This includes all lodging, meals, and incidental expenses up to certain limits. All of these limits and meal allowances can be found on the Defense Travel Management Office Web site. Here, the per diem rates can be found for every state and county within the United States, as well as any country or state outside of the Continental United States. These rates change from year to year.
Service members are also able to get a cash advance of up to 80 percent of the total value of their meals and incidental expenses before their TDY per diem takes place, according to Wikipedia. This means that employees do not have to spend their own money out-of-pocket in order to eat and take care of themselves. This also means that a personal credit card will not have to be used at all during the trip.
Government travel cards are also an option for service members in certain positions within the military. Just like a corporate credit card, however, these cards have several restrictions and limits as to what can be bought with them. These cards are often direct-billed to the government, and purchases are reviewed by an approval agency. This means that no cash has to change hands for the cardholder.
Temporary duty assignments can be a difficult thing to go through for a member of the armed services or military agency. This often means having to move away from home for a certain period of time and do work in another State or even country that you are not familiar with. Luckily, the military does its best to provide you with lodging and food to make your arrangements a home away from home.
