Before a dependency waiver is granted for any of the services, the recruiting service will conduct a financial eligibility determination.
Financial Eligibility Determinations
Some recruits will have to show that they will be able to meet their current financial obligations upon enlistment. This includes recruits who are married (or who have ever been married), recruits who require a dependency waiver, recruits with a history of collection accounts, bankruptcy, closed uncollected accounts or bad credit. In the Air Force, it also includes any recruit who is at least 23 years of age. In general, the services are attempting to ensure that the recruit can meet current financial obligations on military active duty pay. For example, the Air Force uses the "40 percent rule." Any recruit who's monthly consumer debts (not counting debts which can be deferred, such as student loans) exceeds 40 percent of his/her anticipated military pay is ineligible for enlistment.
The Navy policy examines total indeptness, rather than monthly payments. The Navy Recruiting Regulation States:
No person may be selected who has a history of bad checks (unless through bank error), repossessions, cancelled or suspended charge accounts, or indebtedness exceeding half the annual salary of the paygrade at which the person is being recruited. If indebtedness includes a long-term mortgage, total indebtedness must not exceed 2 ½ times the annual salary.
The Marines use the same Financial Eligibility Determination forms that the Navy uses. However, the Marines only do a Financial Eligibility Determination when the individual requires a Dependency Waiver. As part of the Dependency Waiver approval process, the applicant is interviewed by the Recruiting Commander (or his/her representative), who ensures, as part of the interview/review process that the recruit would be able to meet their current financial obligations on military pay.
Like the Marines, the Army only does a Financial Eligibility Determination when a Dependency Waiver is Required.
Single Parents
With the exception of the Army National Guard, single parents are not allowed to enlist in the military, period. In the "old days," some recruits would try to get around this restriction by giving up legal custody of their child(ren) until after basic training and job school, but the military has wised up to this practice.
For example, in the Marine Corps, one must give up legal custody (by court order) of their child(ren), and then wait one year or more before being eligible for enlistment. In the Army and Air Force, single member parent applicants who, at the time of initial processing for enlistment, indicate they have a child or children in the custody of the other parent or another adult are advised and required to acknowledge by certification that their intent at the time of enlistment was not to enter the Air Force/Army with the express intention of regaining custody after enlistment. These applicants must execute a signed statement testifying they have been advised that, if they regain custody during their term of enlistment, they will be in violation of the stated intent of their enlistment contract. They may be subject to involuntary separation for fraudulent entry unless they can show cause, such as the death or incapacity of the other parent or custodian, or their marital status changes from single to married.
The military's refusal to accept single parents for enlistment is a valid one. The military is no place for a single parent. Due to a divorce, I spent the last six years of my military career as a single parent, and it is the singularly most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. In the military, the mission always comes first. Absolutely no exceptions are made in assignments, deployments, duty hours, time off, or any other factor for single parents. Single parents in the military are required to have a nonmilitary person (in the local area) on call at all times, 24-hours-per-day, seven-days-per-week, 365 days-per-year, who will agree (in writing) to take custody of their child(ren) at no notice, in the event that the military member is deployed or called to duty. Failure to comply with these " Family Care Plans" can (and does) result in an immediate discharge.
In general, an applicant who has joint physical custody of a child by court order or agreement, and the applicant does not have a spouse, he/she is considered a "single parent." If local or state court allows modification, if the other parent assumes full custody, the applicant is usually qualified for enlistment.
In the Army National Guard, a single parent may enlist, if they receive a waiver from the State Adjutant General of the state that individual is enlisting.
