Soldiers and spouses who are trying to leave abusive partners can now get away from dangerous situations faster with the help of immediate funds from an Army-affiliated non-profit.
Under a new policy from Army Emergency Relief, which provides financial assistance and loans to soldiers for a variety of emergencies, soldiers and Army spouses can access up to $1,500 for transportation, temporary lodging, food and necessary personal items – all resources that could give victims who are financially dependent or being financially manipulated, a way out.
For Jennfier Alvarado, a former hospital corpsman in the Navy, money was a key part of her abuse. Her husband stole her car and took thousands of dollars out of their joint bank account, leaving her and her child with $3.93 to her name.
“With intimate partner violence and domestic violence, there’s also financial manipulation in a lot of these situations and the abuser kind of holds the victim by a string because of finances,” Alvarado said. “To take that burden away when there’s already a million things on the plate, I do think that that is something that will benefit.”
“We don’t want money to be the reason why it escalates and that person wasn’t able to leave the house,” Sean Ryan, a spokesperson for the Army Emergency Relief told Task & Purpose, adding that the update “circumvents waiting time” under bureaucratic processes in the formal Transitional Compensation Program. As a non-profit organization, they can “make a decision in an hour” and avoid red tape that holds back immediate assistance for domestic violence victims.
A 2021 Government Accountability report that looked at the Pentagon’s response to domestic abuse said that almost 40% of survivors they interviewed cited “financial dependence on their abuser when describing barriers to reporting.”
Around $12 million each year goes towards “support programs like domestic violence,” Ryan said. The policy was driven by direct feedback that former Sergeant Major of the Army and current CEO of the non-profit, Tony Grinston heard from soldiers at more than a dozen bases, he added.
Quick cash to flee abusive relationships
According to the AER policy, officials can provide $1,500 or five days worth of funding for essential needs. If a second round of assistance is needed to move them to a safe location, the approval authority can grant up to $2,500. The total amount in financial assistance is capped at $4,000 and any exceptions require consideration from the Garrison Commander.
Under the formal program, Army dependents are able to get financial assistance if a soldier was convicted of a dependent-abuse offense and administratively separated, sentenced by a court-martial or there had to be “documented evidence that dependent abuse occurred.”. Similar restrictions exist across the services under the Department of Defense-wide Transitional Compensation for Abused Dependents program.
The AER policy “aligns with the U.S. Army Family Advocacy Program, addressing restricted cases where command funding is unavailable. The short answer is AER offers rapid funding when speed is crucial,” Ryan said.
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Despite existing policies, Erin Kirk, co-founder of #NotInMyMarineCorps, a group of active duty troops and veterans working to end sexual harassment and assault in the military said most service members and spouses don’t know these resources exist and there’s a stigma around accessing it.
“Part of the same stigma that surrounds sexual assault and accusing another service member of bringing forward an unrestricted report for sexual assault – you’re gonna get the same kind of language surrounding domestic violence. Like, ‘Oh, are you trying to ruin your spouse? This is gonna kill the spouse’s career. Are you sure you wanna do this?’,” Kirk said. “We need to talk about the culture of the military and how we get around speaking to survivors in those kinds of ways that keep them in these kinds of violent situations.”
Side stepping paperwork for aid
The new policy update will sidestep the delays associated with filing a “restricted report,” a formal complaint to Army officials that a person is facing domestic violence. Previously, AER funding could be held up as a restricted report made its way through as many as eight to 10 different agencies and “can delay moving a victim out of the abusive situation,” according to the AER memo.
As a non-profit, AER can cut a check immediately for a victim in need of a hotel, gas or food. Through the formal Defense Department program, the compensation amount is dictated by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Dependency and Indemnity Compensation rate, a tax-free monthly payment which changes annually.
“The new policy – it would have been a great asset to have back then – especially for someone like me who didn’t go back,” said Chelsea Rucker, a former gunners mate in the Coast Guard. “I would have gotten out sooner. I had to save up pennies to be able to escape.”
Rucker did not go to her chain of command for help because she didn’t think of her and her husband’s dynamic as abuse since it wasn’t physical or overt. She finally realized there was a problem when the parent of her son’s friend offered them his paycheck.
During her relationship, Rucker’s partner kept all of the couple’s finances from her, including when she got out of the service to have a baby. She spent two years saving up $4,000 – sometimes saving change here and there or by lying to her partner about the cost of groceries to pocket a few extra dollars.
“To me it was normal. I didn’t think the command could do anything to help me at that point because I mean, our bills were paid, we looked like a normal, white-picket-fence-with-blue-shutters family,” she said. “Once you step through that door it was something much darker.”
More mental health support needed
Between 2015 and 2019, the Department of Defense reported 40,000 domestic abuse incidents – 43% were Army cases, according to the GAO. The number of cases may be underreported according to an audit uncovered by the Project on Government Oversight and reported by Task & Purpose which found that between 2019 and 2021, there were around 4,000 incidents that were not properly tracked under the Army’s two reporting systems.
Alvarado, who now works with Disabled Veterans of America, said the policy is a step forward but more mental health support is needed for victims to understand that the situation is abusive and have the mental fortitude to get out of abusive situations. From her experience and as data suggests, victims of domestic abuse tend to leave and return back to their partners multiple times. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, “survivors of abuse return to their abusive partners an average of seven times before they leave for good.”
“I ended up going into another marriage riddled with intimate partner violence. There was one key component to the puzzle that was missing and it was – I didn’t know that I had battered women’s syndrome. I didn’t know that I had complex PTSD,” Alvarado said. “If we’re offering all these transitional services, what about the services to keep these men and women from going back to the same situation? Because I’ll tell you in both situations that I was in, it was a recurring theme, but I always ended up going back.”
According to the transitional compensation policies across the services, eligible service members or dependents who receive financial compensation will forfeit the benefits if they continue to cohabitate with the offending service member or remarry.