By Scott Prater
Mountaineer staff
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Unforeseen emergencies seem too often occur at the most inopportune times – the furnace quits on the first cold night of Autumn; the Family car breaks down soon after a Soldier has left town on a deployment. Maybe a Soldier new to the Army is experiencing pay or basic housing allowance issues and has hit a deadline for producing a rent or mortgage payment.
Deployments often result in an uptick of emergency needs for remaining spouses and Family members: home and auto repair, appliance replacement, food and clothing, for example.
As the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, prepares for an upcoming deployment, the Army Community Service (ACS) Financial Readiness Program (FRP) at Fort Carson hopes to make Soldiers, spouses and Family members aware of assistance available for those experiencing temporary financial hardship.
“Really a unit deployment doesn’t change how the FRP and Army Emergency Relief (AER) operate,” said Fred Lewis, AER officer at Fort Carson. “ACS’s financial readiness provides services for Families at pre-deployment, during a deployment and post-deployment times. What Soldiers should know, however, is that in order for an Army spouse to receive AER funds, the service member must file a special power of attorney that specifies AER.”
Obtaining a special power of attorney can be accomplished through the Fort Carson legal office, but Lewis said filing the special power of attorney is something many Soldiers don’t think about prior to deploying.
“We try to get the word out to unit leaders and Soldiers,” he said. “Our FRP team is conducting pre-deployment briefings with many units. At the same time, we understand that some people may be resistant to asking for financial help because of embarrassment or the stigma associated with seeking assistance.”
AER provides roughly $70 million in grants and zero-interest loans to more than 40,000 military Families a year, but it’s only one resource service offered through FRP.
“Many Soldiers, for instance, may be the primary financial person in a household, but when that Soldier deploys, paying the bills and managing accounts falls on the spouse,” Lewis said. ”Sometimes spouses, and Soldiers for that matter, may have to deal with debt issues, but we have financial counselors who can help reform a budget or perform debt negotiation.”
Mary Braxton, manager of ACS’s Financial Readiness Program, said the FRP also conducts reintegration briefings for units who redeploy.
“We’re proactive when it comes to financial reintegration training,” she said. “If a unit leader believes a unit could find a briefing is helpful or even if a particular Soldier needs a one-on-one financial counseling session, we can provide that.”
To learn more about services and resources offered through the ACS Financial Readiness Program, contact ACS at 526-4605.
| Date Taken: | 08.30.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.19.2021 17:13 |
| Story ID: | 407582 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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