Claim for Travel Costs Reimbursement

A civilian Army employee questioned his entitlement to reimbursement for the cost of transporting his daughter and granddaughter from an overseas post incident to a permanent change-of-station. The Claims Group had disallowed his claim based on a finding that neither his daughter nor granddaughter qualified as part of his immediate family under the regulations which authorize transportation at Government expense. The employee contended that Department of Defense regulations governing transportation on a space-available basis require only that a person be a close-blood or affinitive relative to be eligible for space-available transportation. Since the daughter and granddaughter were living with the employee and were in fact dependent on him, the employee felt that they should have been given space-available transportation for their return travel. It was not clear why they were denied space-available transportation; however, this had no bearing on their entitlement to reimbursement since they did travel by commercial transportation. To be considered members of an immediate family, persons must be unmarried and under the age of 21, unless physically or mentally incapable of self-support. For grandchildren to be eligible, there must be a legal guardianship relationship with the employee or his spouse before transportation at Government expense is authorized. Since neither the daughter nor granddaughter qualified as members of the employee's immediate family under the Federal travel regulations, no authority existed to reimburse him for the cost of their transportation. Accordingly, the action of the Claims Group was sustained.