I received severance pay of $13324 in 1995, then soon after had emergency surgery and was service connected and va paid the hospital bill over $20k and I went back to the va rep in Colorado Springs (greg stark) and he said I should be happy with them for just paying the bill, so I was 0% service connected with 9ft of small bowl and pat of my colon removed. Upon moving back to my home state years latter 2004 a veteran told me I need to talk to a va rep here and which I did and 40% latter I started to receive $691/ month for about 1 1/2 years and then a letter stating the va will stop payment till the severance pay of $13324 was paid back. I questioned about do I still neeed to pay the portion I was taxed on of about $4500 and they said yes, well the big guy(govt) has this so why do I need to pay it back.If any other vets have any suggestions or have won a case against this is my e-mail fueledup@aol.com

I too was medically seperated back in 1991 with severance. I was not notified that the V.A. was going to get their money back before I could get the full monthly allotment of disability pay. Now here ti is, 17 years later, and I am STILL paying back the severance of about $16k. Why is it that retirees can get concurrent receipt; disability AND retirement, but we have to repay?

Pumacat, I just today received a letter from Zack Space ohio Congressman, He received a letter from VA and stated all will need to be paid back even the taxs that the Govt. received so we are paying them back alot more than we received. The way I see it all is that Congress can not do anything about it at all , so in many words were are screwed. I am going back to keep fighting for higher disability rate and never give up for thats what they want you to do, I just feel bad for the other soldiers comming home and getting the shaft , or fight for months or years to get what they deserve. I guess they are hoping that we die before its all paid back, cause it takes a lot of time to get an appointment with va and then months before you either get denied or rated--mostly denied so they prolong and hope you give up. Well good luck on your fight.