"My best friend would take care of my daughter in the morning and I would pick her up after work," said Bent. "When I had duty on the ship, she would watch her for almost two whole days."

Deployments were even tougher. With the Bent's closest relative being her mother in Jamaica, Bent would have to fly her daughter out there before each deployment.

Bent knew she needed a better solution. She knew she needed to add her mother as a dependent and move her to the states permanently; but how?

More and more people have become financially responsible for their family members. Whether parents have become too sick to work, siblings have had to move in due to a parental death, or like Bent, there is a need for a full-time child care provider, the struggle to support other family members has become very real. These situations are putting quite a bit of financial stress on Sailors, and that can often affect them in other aspects of their life. In these instances the Secondary Dependency Program may be the answer.
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The hardest part of the secondary dependency was starting the process, said Bent.

"While on the ship, trying to get information on this was difficult at times because not everyone knew the rules and regulations," said Bent. "Sailors don't come across this all the time, so I had to do a lot of research on my own."

Whereas children of military members are automatically entitled to dependency status once they are enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS), other family members, such as parents and siblings, require a review from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) before they can be considered dependents and be enrolled in DEERS as a family member or dependent.

Bent had to prove that she had a legitimate reason for supporting her mom and having her mother come to live with her.
On top of that, Bent's mother was a resident of Jamaica. So she first had to fill out forms for her mother to become a resident of the United States before she could even start the paperwork for the Secondary Dependency Program.

There are four categories for the Secondary Dependency Program: Parents, including parents-in-law and in loco parentis, legal custody wards, unmarried incapacitated child (21 years or over) and unmarried full time student students (21 or 22 years old). Each category may require different documentation, so make sure you fill out the correct documents for your particular situation.

When Bent submitted her forms in fall of 2010 she was about to head out on her first WESTPAC with the Carl Vinson. Bent flew her daughter to Jamaica, and then flew back to the ship.

"After I filled out the necessary documents I just had to wait. I had to wait to get a confirmation and see if she was even eligible to be a dependent," said Bent.
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Program eligibility is not guaranteed. After the application is submitted, DFAS will apply a financial test to determine whether the family member receives more than half of his/her income from the Service member. The military member must also submit a birth certificate and proof of the relationship to the secondary dependent they are trying to claim.

"Based on the fact that she wasn't working, and she was solely coming to live with me in order to help with my daughter, I got confirmation that yes, my mom was eligible to be a dependent and could be added to my page 2," said Bent.

Bent was on her second deployment when she got the news.

"When I received that letter I ran straight to admin and said 'look I have the letter, so can you please add my mom to my page 2.' And just like that she was my dependent," said Bent.

When the Carl Vinson arrived back to San Diego from deployment in May of 2011, Bent flew to Jamaica not only to bring back her daughter, but also her mother.

Problem solved.

If you have any questions, contact you command's personnel or finance office. For more information, visit http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/secondarydependency.html.