If your military family is adopting a child, you qualify for a Defense Department adoption reimbursement benefit.
And now you have extra time to apply for it, opening the door for families who adopt multiple children at a time to receive a bigger refund.
In the past, military members who adopted a child or children through an authorized source had one year to apply for the benefit.
Adoptions are expensive, particularly from overseas, and troops could submit their qualifying expenses for reimbursement of up to $2,000 per child, and up to $5,000 per year.
But what if, as in the case of one family in Texas who recently adopted a group of children who had been in their home through the foster system, you adopted more than three children and their expenses exceeded that amount?
You were still limited to the $5,000 reimbursement cap.
The change, made to the regulation in July, expands that timeline to two years from one.
That means that if your family adopts a group of children in a single year, you can apply for reimbursement for some of them now and others later.
Win!
After a month of seeking details, Pentagon officials could not tell us why this change was made.
They did say that last year the DoD reimbursed troops $1.35 million through this program.
Officials said that it was extended to "better support service members," but did not give specific examples of who this would help.
You can find more details on applying for this benefit on the Military.com adoption expenses reimbursement page.
