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February 10,
2005
[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this article?
Sound
off in our Discussion Boards.]
By Greg Tyler,
Stars and Stripes, Pacific Edition
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — An online survey provides a chance for
servicemembers to input information the government uses to determine
overseas cost-of-living allowances.
The Living Pattern Survey, put in motion by the U.S. Forces Japan
Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee, is open
through March 1, said Petty Officer 1st Class Billy Reynolds, LPS
point-of-contact for the Sasebo area.
Reynolds said all single or married servicemembers with command-sponsored
dependents living completely or in part on the local economy are
eligible “and encouraged” to take part.
The LPS results help determine amounts of COLA
paid to servicemembers stationed overseas. COLA is designed to allow
such servicemembers to maintain the purchasing power they’d have
if stationed in the United States.
An LPS usually is done every three years. USFJ had planned its next
one for 2006, Reynolds said. It’s done at other overseas locations
around the world, too, but right now is being done only in Japan
because of the fluctuations in the strong yen/weak U.S. dollar currency
conversion, he said. “So, instead of waiting another year, U.S.
Forces Japan officials wanted the survey be done now, just two years
since the last effort.”
The current survey seeks participants at U.S. installations in mainland
Japan and Okinawa, he said.
Civilians in Okinawa also are invited to take the survey but civilians
in mainland Japan should not participate. The State Department is
responsible for civilian post allowance surveys on the Japanese
mainland but on Okinawa, that responsibility falls to the Defense
Department.
“It’s important that servicemembers sit down and take the time …
to fill out the survey and identify where they shop when they do
so off base,” said Army Lt. Col. Keith Muschalek, the USFJ country
allowances coordinator at Yokota Air Base.
“The importance is in providing the right prices and other information
we can use to make sure the COLA Index will reflect what they actually
need” while on duty in Japan, he said.
The LPS questions are meant to identify where and how goods and
services are purchased off base. The information obtained is used
in conjunction with a Retail Price Report — the one paired with
this LPS is to occur in April — to form a basis for prescribing
COLA in the various areas of Japan.
“Okinawa is considered all one area as far as COLA but COLA can
differ at bases in the mainland,” Muschalek said. “The COLA for
the Misawa area is likely different than in Yokosuka, and so on.”
Reynolds said the survey doesn’t ask how much items cost off base.
“In April, we check into that when we send out teams to tally prices
off-base” for the Retail Price Report, he said. “The LPS does, however,
ask for percentages of shopping people do on base, off base and
online.”
One comment field within the LPS allows for notations about any
special considerations — regular payments of road tolls, buying
produce off base because it’s fresher, paying routine parking fees
— that factor into the cost of living in the locality, Reynolds
said.
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Sasebo servicemembers can call Reynolds at DSN 252-3664 for more
information. At other bases, additional information can be obtained
from calling your Personnel Services Department for additional information.
-----------------------------------------------------------
USFJ’s Living Pattern Survey
Servicemembers (and, on Okinawa only, civilians) who want to take
the USFJ Living Pattern Survey must do so by March 1. The shopping
questionnaire takes about 30 minutes to complete. To calculate installation
cost-of-living allowances, officials use information gathered from
the survey and other pricing comparisons.
A servicemember or spouse must enter the last six digits of the
servicemember’s Social Security number and the location code JA035
upon entering the survey.
The survey is online at https://141.116.74.201/oscola/lps/japan/
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