What Dislocation Allowance Is

This page gives no dollar figures for Dislocation Allowance (DLA): this site holds no DLA rate table. What follows is who can draw it and when, worked from the DoD Financial Management Regulation. For the rate itself, go to DTMO's Dislocation Allowance page, which keeps the current figures.

What DLA is paid for

The FMR's own chapter on permanent duty travel is short about where DLA's rules actually live: "DLA is paid to members as specified in the JTR, section 0505." The FMR chapter doesn't restate that eligibility list or any dollar amount from it; it only adds a handful of related rules layered on top. One of them: "If a change of grade occurs between the issue date of orders and the effective date of orders, a copy of the promotion/demotion orders may be submitted with the claim versus an amended order" — useful if a promotion lands between your orders being cut and your report date.

The without-dependents, above-E-5 exception

One circumstance gets its own rule: "A member without dependents, who is above the pay grade of E-5, may receive DLA if the member elects not to occupy assigned quarters of the United States or a housing facility under the jurisdiction of a uniformed service, and the quarters or facility do not meet the minimum adequacy standards established by the Secretary of Defense for members in such grade." That paperwork isn't optional: "Do not advance or pay DLA to a member under these circumstances without a statement from the gaining organization that assigned quarters do not meet the minimum adequacy standards." Without that written statement from the gaining command, finance has no basis to pay or advance DLA under this exception at all.

A related election reaches married-to-military couples without dependents: the senior spouse of a member married to another member, both below pay grade E-6, who elect not to occupy assigned shipboard quarters may be advanced or paid DLA, under a separate JTR table this page doesn't reproduce.

The 30-day advance

Most travel advances follow a 10-day rule, but DLA gets a longer runway: "DLA advance payments may be issued 30 days prior to travel rather than 10 days prior to travel as directed for most other travel advances in Chapter 5." That means you can put in for the advance a full month out from the move, not just ten days before it. Components also have another option besides a cash advance: they "may alternatively opt to authorize use of the Government Travel Charge Card (GTCC) for DLA expenses" under a separate GTCC regulation.

For the rate itself

Nothing above says what DLA actually pays, on purpose. DTMO's Dislocation Allowance page is the current source for that figure. For how DLA fits alongside the PPM incentive and the other allowances a PCS order can trigger, see which PCS allowance covers what.