I am not sure what you are asking.

If you mean me, I am not asking a question.. I am just back here wondering....

quote:

Originally posted by mcvikair:
Would the VA rating be they current one held, or the first one received after discharge? A vet could make some good money by getting an increase from 60% to 70%, or 70% to 80%, just because of the dates for implementation. Therefore, are C&P appointments going to rise even more since there will be a years’ worth of pay they could make for an increase?

No this is the item that made no sense to me.

quote:

Originally posted by DaveBarker:

On January 1, 2010, Chapter 61 retirees with less than 20 years of service and a VA rating of either 90% or 100% become eligible
On January 1, 2011, Chapter 61 retirees with less than 20 years of service and a VA rating of either 70% or 80% become eligible
On January 1, 2012, Chapter 61 retirees with less than 20 years of service and a VA rating of either 50% or 60% become eligible.
The remaining two years of this phase-in extends CRDP to Chapter 61 retirees, regardless of years of service, with a VA rating of less than 50%.

On January 1, 2013, all Chapter 61 retirees with a VA rating of either 30% or 40% will become eligible
On January 1, 2014, all Chapter 61 retirees with any VA rating become eligible
Once this plan is completed, the only disabled retirees ineligible for CRDP will be non-medical retirees with 40% or lower VA disability ratings. The 10-year cost of the expansion is estimated to be $5.8 billion.

This new initiative represents a 180-degree turnabout from the positions of all previous Administrations, Republican or Democratic.

Our hope is that this signals a potential willingness to go "the final mile" in the future to cover all disabled retirees.

The way I see it, if you have a VA rating of 60% on Jan 1st 2011, you will earn $0 from CRDP that year, but if you are able to get an increase to 70% on Jan 1st, 2011, you could receive CRDP for that entire year and thereafter. Correct?
If I'm right, then there would be an influx of people wanting C&P's to get an increase unless they just go by the initial rating. Correct my misinterpretation please.

I would think they would prevent that behavior with the regulations and drafting of the law. Also, this may not be retro like SC compensation.

A Military.com feature article


Error Left 39,000 Out Of 'VA Retro Pay'
Tom Philpott | May 28, 2009

As many as 39,000 disabled military retirees have been left out of the VA Retro Pay program by mistake, say officials at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) who are calculating the amount of money owed.

This latest and perhaps most serious gaffe in the problem-plagued VA Retro Pay project was uncovered after DFAS received a rising number of complaints from retirees. None of them had been screened for retroactive payment, but follow-up calculations confirmed that each had been underpaid.

VA Retro payments have ranged from a few hundred dollars to many thousands, depending on individual circumstance. All recipients have served in the military for 20 or more years and all have disabilities that qualified them for one of two relatively new entitlements: Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC), which began in 2003, or Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP), which started in 2004.

The VA Retro Pay project started made lump-sum back payments to retirees in September 2006. The project became necessary because of difficulties in calculating initial payments to retirees under CRSC and CRDP, complex programs voted by Congress to begin to lift the ban on concurrent receipt of both military retirement and disability compensation. First up were to be full-career retirees with combat-related injuries or severe disabilities.

Last July, DFAS officials announced they finally had eliminated a backlog of retroactive payments owed to an original pool of 133,000. That was months past the initial deadline of September 2007, but it had taken DFAS and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) longer than expected to calculate payments. Many of them had to be done by hand, not computer.

Chet Boutelle, deputy site director for DFAS operations in Cleveland, said in a phone interview Tuesday that the original group of Retro Pay recipients should have numbered 172,000.

So how were 39,000 retirees left out of that original pool?

"When you write computer scripts and ask them to search for certain criteria, if you don't get all the criteria, it won't pick certain people. So that's what happened here," said Boutelle. "It didn't pick all of the original people that it should have."

Boutelle said that by last December the pay files of about 20 retirees not in the original pool had been reviewed at their request. All were found to be eligible for retroactive payment just as they claimed.

"That's what started us going back to VA to have them re-check what was going on. We actually had more than 20, a couple hundred…But the first 20 were the ones that made us stand up and say 'Something is wrong.' "

DFAS officials said the Department of Veterans Affairs, which jointly administers VA Retro Pay, did the computer runs that identified only 133,000 retirees as likely to be eligible for back pay. By April this year, Boutelle said, VA had identified the criteria left out of the computer program back in 2006.

"The cases most likely to be affected are veterans who have had little or no interaction with VBA [the Veterans Benefits Administration] in the last five years," said Lois Mittelstaedt, a senior VBA official. "The coding on these cases was not set in the same manner as cases processed in recent years."

Mittelstaedt said the pattern of missed retirees first was detected late last year.

"Over the last few months, DFAS and VA have worked to analyze…and correct the logic for selecting retired veterans. After many testing exchanges, DFAS confirmed in March 2009 that the new file layout and content were valid. These changes, implemented in April, were made in a collaborative effort with the DFAS team."

She added, "VA has worked diligently to identify all retired veterans so that DFAS can determine their entitlement to retroactive payments under CRSC and CRDP. We continue to work closely with the DFAS team to meet the needs of veterans entitled to CRSC and CRDP."

Like the original batch, some of the 39,000 retirees are owed money from DFAS, some are owed money from the VA and some are owed money from both departments. Boutelle said it could be several more weeks before he can estimate the average amount to be repaid.

"But worst case, by the 15th of July, everybody will actually have a check in hand," he said.

DFAS officials said they had briefed Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) a few weeks ago on the mistake. Kucinich, as chairman of the subcommittee on domestic policy of the House Oversight and Government Reform, had held a hearing on VA Retro Pay last July where he skewered DFAS and its contractor, Lockheed Martin, for sending "no pay due" letters to some CRSC and CRDP retirees who, it turned out, actually were owed money.

DFAS agreed at the time to conduct a new review of about 25,000 pay files from the original 133,000. Last fall, Kucinich announced that the review found about 1900 "no pay due" letter recipients were owed on average about $1800. More than 2500 others, however, had received overpayments in excess of $2,500, Kucinich complained in a letter to DFAS.

"Errors of that magnitude are disgraceful," he wrote.

Kucinich has not commented publicly yet on the 39,000 retirees mistakenly passed over for VA Retro Pay since 2006. More information on these retirees will be posted soon on the DFAS website at www.dfas.mil.

The VA Retro Pay help line is 1-877-327-4457.

I've been reading the law regarding the Chapt 61 retires getting both VA and Ret pay, but last time, I read it, is said "all qualified" Chapt 61 retirees -- but later, I realized it left some out (qualified, the operating word), but never defined them in a manner that I could understand completely - and as it turned out, I'm war-time SC, but non-combat related, and less than 20 - so no go for me. As I read it now, the new one, it might be including me but I still see the term "qualified" Chapt 61 retiree with under 20 .... but it never defines what 'qualified" means ... so, is there an exclusion here for some Chapt 61 retired - I see only non-service connected under 40% as one ... are there others? Can anyone explain this better - or tell me where to look - I read THOMAS already and am still confused a little.

You posted on two topics with the same question. Please ask once.

The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed into law on January 28, 2008 and expands CRSC eligability to include Chapter 61, TERA, and TDRL retirees, new components for Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC). This legislation is effective January 1, 2008.

As of June 9, 2008 CRSC has received the implementation guidance from DoD and is currently processing Chapter 61 and TERA claims.

It expanded the eligibility of CRSC to include anyone recieving military retired pay. This includes: Medical Chapter 61, Temporary Early Retirement Act (TERA) and Temporary Disabled Retirement List (TDRL) retirees. These new eligible components for CRSC went into effect January 1, 2008. Medical and TERA retirees must still provide documentation that shows a causal link between a current VA disability and a combat related event.

Expansion of concurrent receipt proposed

There is a proposal to increase government payments to 103,000 disabled retirees over the next five years, marking the first time that the Administration not Congress is leading the effort to expand full concurrent receipt of military and veterans benefits to those eligible for both.

The first three years, this will apply to those medically retired with a disability with less than 20 years of service, a group left out of previous expansions of concurrent receipt. In the final two years, the proposal would apply to all disability retirees, regardless of years of service, whose disabilities are rated at less than 50 percent, this being all all disability retirees.

It must be approved by Congress, then it begins on January 1, when nearly 12,000 veterans with service connected disability ratings of 90 percent, or more who receive military disability retired pay and veterans disability compensation, would be allowed to concurrently receive both payments in full, with no offsets in military retired pay.

From the Army website:

Disability retirees with less than 20 years of service would be added to concurrent receipt through 2014, depending on their level of disability, with changes that take effect January 1 of each year, if Congress apporves the Administration request:

• Those with disabilities rated at 70 percent and 80 percent would be eligible in 2011.

• Those with disabilities rated at 50 percent and 60 percent would be eligible in 2012.

• All disability retirees, regardless of years of service, who have disabilities rated at 30 percent and 40 percent would be allowed to receive both payments in full in 2013. Disability retirees with 20 or more years of service who have disabilities rated at 50 percent or greater already receive full retired and disability pay.

• In 2014, the remaining disability retirees who are receiving veterans compensation and disability retired pay would be allowed to get both payments in full.

Nearly 80,000 disability retirees will be affected in the first three years and about 23,000 in the last two years of the five-year plan, which would carry a $5.4 billion price tag over 10 years if Congress apporves the Administration request.

Note concurrent receipt for veterans with less than 20 years of service receiving disability retirement under Chapter 61 of the U.S. Code is different from regular military retirement the program is complicated by a special rule that bases their benefits not on the retirement pay they are receiving from the military, but on the level of regular retirement pay for their years of service.

To answer prior TERA/TDRL questions that needed some research. Some of the retirees with only a few years of service and a high disability rating could end up receiving no more money after the change in law than they do today,for some there will still be an offset.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service included an explanation of how to calculate concurrent receipt for Chapter 61 retirees in a March newsletter for retirees, which can be found online. You may use Yahoo to find DFAS Chapter 61.

The concurrent receipt proposal is part of a larger omnibus package of legislation that the Defense Department has sent to Congress in hopes that it will be approved as part of the 2010 defense budget.

The House and Senate armed services committees are expected to begin preparing their version of the annual defense policy bill, the likely vehicle for the legislation, in June. As long as the defense budget includes money to cover the benefits, the proposal is unlikely to face opposition in Congress, according to congressional aides working on military personnel issues.

regarding obama's chapter 61 new law, if passed. I am receving crsc now. with deductions calulated im getting $52.00 a month out of E4 pay for 1970 PAY GRADE If THE LAW PASSES will it stay the same or do l get full pay grade. medical retired combat related 100 percent THANK YOU JP

I do not believe that will change. That is the retired pay for an E-4 with the months of service. So it you get 2.5% of your base pay per year of service.

quote:

Originally posted by 16826063:
regarding obama's chapter 61 new law, if passed. I am receving crsc now. with deductions calulated im getting $52.00 a month out of E4 pay for 1970 PAY GRADE If THE LAW PASSES will it stay the same or do l get full pay grade. medical retired combat related 100 percent THANK YOU JP

To the OP

Unless it's changed in "conference" the new CRSC provisions would reflect as follows:

PRESENT LAW:

E-4 retired in 1970 = E4 pay x 2.5% each year of service with cola

NEW: E-4 retired in 1970 credited for full retirement IF you're 100% disabled = same as having served 20 years, no more offsets. Reasoning: You were retired and Title 10, 18USC never calculated 2.5 % per year, unless you continued on after 20, then it provided you a 2.5 for each year above the 20 with a maximum of 70. The 2.5% calculation in the CRSC law was applied through DOD interpretation of 2008 NDAA when it became law.

The new CRSC (again unless it gets changed) will provide for full concurrent receipt.
This is my understanding of the 2010 NDAA presently in congress..there are "companion legislation" as well, such as HR 303 & 333, those vary a little, and which one of the 3 will be incorporated, I don't know yet. I truly believe that this year will be the "Charm" for all of you that are sincerely owed every penny for the sacrafice you have made. "In the end..all wrongs are righted" Hang in there.

I hope you are correct. Then justice will be served on this issue.

Freddy what happens if you are 30% disabled under this plan - 30% of the amount?