To set up a military allotment for your spouse, log into the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) MyPay portal, open the Allotments menu, add a financial allotment with your spouse’s bank routing and account numbers and the monthly dollar amount you want sent, and submit. The deduction begins with the next full month of pay and lands directly in your spouse’s account. Allotments to a spouse are discretionary, so you decide the amount, when it starts, and when it stops.
What to Have Ready Before You Start
Two things need to be in place before you sit down at MyPay.
First, your spouse should be enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS). DEERS establishes your spouse’s dependent status across military systems, and it’s standard to complete it before setting up financial support. Only the sponsor can add family members, so you’ll need to visit a local ID card office in person with a marriage certificate, your spouse’s birth certificate, Social Security card, and photo ID, and complete a DD Form 1172 at the office.1TRICARE. Required Documents2TRICARE. Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System
Second, get your spouse’s bank routing number and account number, and verify each digit. A single transposed number sends the payment nowhere or into the wrong account, and untangling a misdirected electronic transfer takes far longer than double-checking would.
The MyPay Steps
Once your information is ready, the process itself is quick:
- Log into your MyPay account.
- Select “Allotments” from the menu.
- Select “Add Financial Allotment” and follow the prompts.
- Enter your spouse’s bank routing number, account number, and the monthly dollar amount.
- Select “Submit and Finish.”
- Open your transaction history and confirm the allotment was registered.
Give the system a beat to process. If you don’t see the allotment right away and enter it a second time, you can end up with two allotments running at once, which means twice the deduction from your pay.3Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Allotments
If MyPay isn’t available to you, the paper alternative is DD Form 2558, “Authorization to Start, Stop, or Change an Allotment.”4Executive Services Directorate. DD 2558 – Authorization to Start, Stop, or Change an Allotment Paper takes longer to process, so use MyPay whenever you can.
When the First Payment Arrives
Allotments don’t take effect the moment you hit submit. The deduction begins with the next full month of pay, so an allotment created partway through a pay period usually won’t send its first payment until the following month. If timing matters, submit as early in the month as possible. Your Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) will show the allotment once it’s active.
Rules and Limits That Can Trip You Up
You can have up to six discretionary allotments active at once, and only one allotment per recipient. If an allotment to your spouse already exists, you can’t create a second one to the same person; you’d modify the existing one instead.5Department of Defense. DoD Financial Management Regulation Volume 7A Chapter 42 – Discretionary Allotments
The total of all discretionary allotments cannot exceed your net pay after mandatory deductions such as taxes, Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) premiums, and court-ordered payments. If your allotments outrun your available pay, DFAS may underpay the allotment or withhold your paycheck entirely.3Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Allotments
The DoD Financial Management Regulation authorizes discretionary allotments for five purposes: deposits to financial institutions, support of dependents or relatives, insurance premiums, mortgage or rent payments, and the Savings Deposit Program. Support of a spouse falls squarely within these purposes. Since 2015, service members must also certify that any new discretionary allotment is not for the purchase, lease, or rental of personal property, which covers vehicles, electronics, appliances, and furniture.5Department of Defense. DoD Financial Management Regulation Volume 7A Chapter 42 – Discretionary Allotments
Changing or Stopping the Allotment Later
Modifying a spouse allotment uses the same path as creating one. Log into MyPay, select the allotment, update the amount or the banking information, and submit. To end it, choose the option to discontinue. Check your transaction history afterward to confirm the change registered.
Changes follow the pay cycle, so a mid-month modification typically takes effect the following month. Because a spouse allotment is discretionary, you can stop it at any time for any reason.
If You’re Deploying, Set It Up Before You Leave
A power of attorney cannot be used to start, stop, or change an allotment, and this catches many military families off guard. Even a military-specific special power of attorney doesn’t work here. DFAS restricts pay-related changes to the account owner or a court-appointed guardian, conservator, trustee, or representative payee.6Defense Finance and Accounting Service. About Powers of Attorney
If you’re heading into a deployment and want an allotment in place for your spouse, create it before you go. A spouse holding a POA won’t be able to set one up or adjust one through DFAS while you’re away, regardless of how broadly the POA is written.
What Happens if You Separate or Divorce
A voluntary spouse allotment does not stop automatically when you file for divorce or separate. You have to cancel it yourself in MyPay.
Stopping it isn’t always the right move, though. Each branch requires service members to support their dependents, and an active allotment on your LES is clean evidence you’re meeting that obligation. The Army’s regulation (AR 608-99) is the most detailed: when there is no court order or written agreement, an Army soldier must provide financial support equal to BAH II-WITH to a family unit not living in government housing, whether or not the soldier is actually receiving BAH. Violations are punitive under the regulation and can be addressed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.7Department of Defense. AR 608-99 Family Support, Child Custody, and Paternity The other branches have comparable policies.
A divorcing spouse is not automatically entitled to receive alimony through the allotment system, and commanders cannot order a service member to set up an allotment for that purpose. Commanders can take administrative action if support obligations go unmet, and courts can order support that DFAS enforces through involuntary allotment or garnishment if the service member doesn’t comply.8Nellis Air Force Base. Military Entitlements Upon Separation or Divorce
Before shutting off a spouse allotment during a separation, talk to your installation’s legal assistance office. Stopping voluntary support while your branch’s regulations still require it can create problems that are more expensive to fix than the allotment itself.