Some U.S. Navy families are experiencing delays of up to 45 days in processing their claims for child care fee assistance — aid that offsets the cost of child care in civilian communities when care isn’t available on military installations.
Temporary staffing shortages in the service are causing the delays, said Destiny Sibert, a spokesperson for Navy Installations Command. Navy officials are working to reduce the backlogs that are causing the issues, she said.
The delays are not 45 days in all cases, Sibert added.
“To mitigate the impact, Navy is bringing in temporary personnel to help sustain operations and reduce backlogs, as well as expedite recruitment and onboarding,” she said. “These measures are having a positive effect and we continue to prioritize returning processing times to normal.”
One Navy wife said in a typical situation, the payments are made within 10 days.
The Military Officers Association of America, or MOAA, “urges swift action to address the staffing shortages causing these delays,” said Jennifer Goodale, the nonprofit’s director of government relations for military family and survivor policy. “Delays in delivering child care fee assistance result in financial strain on Navy families and contribute to the challenges spouses have when it comes to employment.”
The long-standing military fee assistance programs, called Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood, helps families in locations with long waiting lists for military child care, as well as those on assignments that aren’t near installations.
The program is meant to bring parents’ child care costs in the community more in line with what they would pay for on-base child care.
The fee assistance subsidy is the difference between what a service member would pay for child care in Defense Department programs and the community-based child care provider’s rate. Payments can be a maximum of $1,800 per month — the current provider rate cap for full-time care. Families and providers must be approved for participation in the fee assistance program.
Families in other service branches are not experiencing the same issues with delays.
A third-party contractor and not-for-profit organization, Child Care Aware, has long administered the fee assistance programs for each of the service branches. But in 2022, the Navy transferred the administration of the program to the Navy Child and Youth Program, which is now seeing staffing shortages.
Families enrolled in the Navy fee assistance program with individual family questions should contact the support center through their MilitaryChildCare.com account, Sibert advised.
“Providing Navy families with high-quality, affordable, and reliable child care remains a top priority. We are committed to minimizing disruption for families and ensuring continued access to this fee assistance,” she said.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
Read the full article here
