Amid the shutdown, military families are bracing for the hit of nonpayment
From her vantage point while working at a US base near Kaiserslautern, Germany, Melanie Peña Delgado sees the scope of the repercussions the US government shutdown is having on the families of US military personnel stationed abroad.
At the Army Community Center, where she provides financial counseling, Ms. Peña Delgado says there is a “flood of soldiers” coming in for emergency payment loans. “The traffic is very busy,” she adds. “Unfortunately, these young soldiers — especially if they have a young family — live paycheck to paycheck.”
At a nearby middle school, when extracurriculars for military school children, from sports to science clubs to homecoming dance, were canceled because of the closure, there was “an outcry from families,” says Ms. Pena Delgado, who also works as a substitute teacher there. She says the same types of confrontations were happening at other military base schools as well.
Why did we write this?
Active duty members of the armed forces are supposed to be paid on October 15. And unlike other recent shutdowns, Congress did not keep their paychecks — sparking protests from families sacrificing to serve the country.
In her case, after military parents convinced Department of Defense school administrators to reconsider, after-school activities resumed.
But payday is approaching on October 15th. While two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, their sense of a safety net is weaker for American soldiers and their families, who already sacrifice to serve. A quarter of service members have less than $500 in savings, according to advocacy organizations. Uncertain wages become another burden to bear.
Now, US forces are looking to US lawmakers for help. Congress is considering separate legislation, including the bipartisan Pay Our Troops Act, to get military service members paid despite the shutdown. While President Donald Trump has publicly stated that they will be paid regardless, House Speaker Mike Johnson told lawmakers that the bill will not be brought up for a vote, Politico reported Thursday. Mr. Johnson and other Republicans say the order will take pressure off Democrats to end the strike. Meanwhile, Democrats say it’s up to Republicans to negotiate a deal.
It’s not the first rodeo to close for troops
The last time service members were affected by a government shutdown was in 2018. Then, the Department of Defense had already been funded for the year, so most soldiers are still getting paid. Those who didn’t went without pay for weeks, including, as part of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard.
This time, there were no proactive steps to make sure troops got paid, says Raleigh Dutwiler, chief impact officer for the National Association of Military Families. “The tenor in our homes has shifted from normal political anxiety about what’s going to happen to, ‘Oh my God, how are we going to put food on the tables?’
One military spouse in Texas, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, recalls that she didn’t have a job during the recent government shutdown. She and her husband had a new baby and just bought a house.
“You think about the stress you go through as a military spouse when your spouse is deployed and may not be getting a paycheck,” she says. Away from home, she remembers thinking: “I’m isolated, I don’t have family living here.”
American forces often find themselves in precarious financial situations. Nearly three-quarters of service members and their spouses are concerned about their pay being late, according to an online Pulse poll of 168 service members and spouses conducted by Blue Star Families earlier this month.
About 60% say their biggest worry is that their spouse will feel more anxious or stressed, and more than half say they may need to use their personal savings to cover costs while not receiving a paycheck. One in three service members say they may need to take out a loan.
Now the military spouse is in Texas working. But even with two incomes, “it’s still very difficult — and it’s not unique,” she says. “This is what many of our military families are facing right now in my community.”
And according to a Blue Star Families survey, some military families are quietly asking for help. A quarter of survey respondents said they may need to rely on a food bank to put dinner on the table.
The Texas husband says others are postponing trips. “We’re on fall break, and we had plans to take the kids to the pumpkin patch, to take them on a little overnight camping trip, and we canceled all of that,” she says. “So instead of them having that experience over fall break, we’re going to sit at home and do what we can with what we have, knowing that we have to dip into savings to make that happen.”
With income already strained Economic inflationMany Americans are struggling to make ends meet. But within military communities, this pressure is exacerbated by the fact that families these days generally “need two incomes to survive, and we can only rely on one income,” Ms. Dutwiler says.
Due in part to frequent job-disrupting relocations and the challenge of solo parenting during deployments, more than 1 in 5 military spouses stay home with children or do not receive a paycheck. It’s worth noting, then, that 63% of military respondents said in a 2019 survey that having two incomes is vital to their financial well-being. Last year, the percentage of people saying they needed two incomes jumped to 77%.
Recruitment and costs of military movements
Right now, the timing of the government shutdown is particularly difficult for military families, about a third of whom moved over the summer and spent about $5,000 out of pocket to do so. It takes most military families a full year to recover financially from the move, according to military advocacy groups.
Ms. Dutwiler says the back-to-school season also means families need to cover the costs of new clothes, school supplies and extracurricular fees. “And now we’re looking at lost wages.”
All of this has implications for hiring, says Lindsay Knight, chief impact officer at Blue Star Families.
“A lack of financial stability is not a good place for any family to be, but specifically a military family who has dedicated their lives to serving this country,” she says. “The lower the quality of life, the bigger problem we will have in retaining and sustaining an all-volunteer force.”
Back in Texas, the military wife says she and her husband will continue to serve. However, 38% of respondents in the Blue Star survey said a government shutdown makes it less likely their family will continue in the military. “In the back of your mind, there’s a nagging feeling that I’m something that can be paused,” the husband says. “And it doesn’t go away.”
Some members of Ms. Peña Delgado’s book club talk about building food boxes and placing them in the front yards of their homes on base. They plan to stock the boxes with things like bread and laundry detergent and leave them out for anyone who needs them. This way, families can pick up the boxes anonymously.
“You know, whatever people need,” she says. “We all lean on each other.”