Retriee Pay And Crdp Combined As One Deposit?

[cowgirl]

Got my first ever VA 60% comp in bank.This extra really helps me support kiddos. DFAS payday Sep 4 is next. Should I expect Retiree pay and CRDP to be combined or paid seperately as a deposit? Thanks, not working fulltime but trying to make ends meet meanwhile. cg

[Ricky]

Yes one deposit. The CRDP simply replaces your the amount of retirement your recive under this program. If you will go to MyPsy and look at your retiree pay statement you will see this. You will ge your retirement pay minus the VA waiver plus the CRDP which is added back to your retirement all in one deposit.

Don't know whey they had to come up with such a complicated system. Guess it was employment security for some hahhahahaha. They could of have simply said under they new law you are to get back x amount of your VA waiver which will be added back to your retirement pay - and then SIMPLY ADDED IT BACK TO YOUR RETIREMENT. Then you would get your retirement pay minus the reduced VA waiver. They have been paying retirement pay minus the VA waiver since Moses was in the army. But no, they had to develop this complicated, drawn out, unrealistic program to implement the law. Now they know that such an action has resulted in thousands upon thousands of veterans being underpaid. So what did they do. the did the governmet thing. set up a committe, study the issue, and then created an entire new seceion within DFAS which will require more funding and more manpower to be wasted.

Sorry for ranting - back to your question-just one payment will be deposited into your accout.

[Berta]

This might explain why checks are bigger -they are working on the retro

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]

Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 8:54 AM

To: undisclosed-recipients:

Subject: Pentagon plows through backlog of retro pay cases

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070901/BIZ/109010015/1005

Mike Benbow,

Business Editor

benbow@heraldnet.com

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Pentagon plows through backlog of retro pay casesBy Tom Philpott, Herald columnistAlmost 75,000 military retirees with disabilities who were underpaid for months

or even years after becoming eligible for one of two programs have received their long-awaited retroactive payments, officials say.

But about 33,000 pay files still need to be reviewed from an original pool of 133,000 potential recipients, said Thomas Pamperin, deputy director of the compensation and pension service for the Department of Veterans Affairs. That review still is expected to be completed by mid-November.

The catch-up payments, which became necessary because of difficulties implementing

the Combat-Related Special Compensation and Concurrent Retirement and Disability

Pay programs, so far total close to $150 million. The average size of payments made by the Veterans Administration has climbed to $2,100, up from an average of $1,500 paid to the first 30,000 or so retroactive pay recipients last fall.

When all files have been reviewed, officials will turn their attention to a new pool of underpaid retirees. This second group of 12,000 to 16,000 retirees became eligible for combat or disability pay between the time the retro pay program began last summer and April of this year.

"This has proved to be an incredibly complex process for all involved," said Pamperin.

Congress enacted the combat-related compensation program to allow disabled retirees

to get combat disability pay under a phased schedule to benefit retirees deemed at least 50 percent disabled.

Last year, officials predicted that all back payments would be made by the end of September 2007. The new target is mid-November 2007.

Through late August, Pamperin said, VA had paid 56,140 retirees a total of $119 million

in back pay. The Department of Defense had paid an additional $28 million to 17,000 retirees.

The size of individual payments varies widely. For example, in August the VA paid five retirees more than $25,000 apiece, or a total of $179,000.

About one of every three pay records reviewed 35,000 so far of nearly 100,000 files shows no under payment. That means many more retirees than projected have been properly compensated and will be getting no retro payments after all.

Officials notify retirees only if an underpayment is discovered. It's a feature of the program that frustrates many retirees. Many will never know if their pay records were even reviewed.

Though DFAS originally estimated that 133,000 retirees potentially were due back pay there was no way to be sure until files were reviewed. This is being done using a special computer program and, for more complex cases, having staff review by hand individual

pay records to make necessary calculations.

"We might be getting down to the nubs here," Pamperin said.

The 33,000 files still to be reviewed from the original batch are considered more complex

for various reasons. Some individuals have seen multiple changes to their VA rating since becoming eligible. Others are eligible for both combat and disability pay and have switched between the two. Retirees can't receive both checks simultaneously.

Other retro payments are taking longer to calculate because they involve a division of retired pay with an ex-spouse. The death of a retiree can sideline a retro payment. Finally, some of the more complex retro pay cases involve higher grade individuals with severe disabilities who draw large service disability retirements, which complicate the formulas.

Officials have set up a retro award hotline for retirees with questions about their

entitlement to a back payment. The toll free number is 877-327-4457. Customer service representatives are available at that number Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Pacific time. Military retirees can also find periodic updates on the retro pay at

DFAS Web site. The link is www.dfas.mil.

To comment, e-mail milupdate@aol.com, write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111 or visit: www.militaryupdate.com.

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[Ricky]

Mmm,O.K. went to DFAS Mypay, saw that VA wavier amount go from 225 to 391 however way at the bottom of the statement shows teh CRDP amount 509 so thats confusing to me

this is the way it should read and it will not show up in your pay. This is the way it works. based upon the amounts you posted I assume you are drawing a check from VA for 900.00. Prior to CRDP your waiver would have been shown as 900.00 for there was a dollar for dollar give away.

Now you will notice that you are still drawing 900.00 from VA, however, DFAS is only taking dollar for dollar from your retirement pay for 391.00. That means that in todays time your are drawing 509.00 more of your retirement pay all the while you are getting 900.00 from VA. Does this make sense?

Another way to look at (EXAMPLE ONLY) it is prior to CRDP if you were awarded your current leve of VA you would have only drawn 900.00 (VA) plus, as an example based upon a 900.00 retirement check, 0 dollars for retirement cause of the dollar for dollar offset so your monthly income would have been 900.00 (VA) + 0.00 (Retirement) = 900.00

Then CRDP came along so now you would still draw your 900.00 VA check Plus a retirement check of 509.00 so you monthly income (retirement + VA)has increased by 509.00 monthly 900.00+509.00 = 1409.00

If you stay at the same level of VA payment this amount will increase every Jan 1 until 2014. At that time you will be drawing 900.00 VA + 900.00 retirement for a monthly total of 1800.00.

Hope this cleared it up for you.

[Razorback Greg]

I've got a simular situation and your response has greatly helped me understand the process. However I have another question along these lines... I just retired on 1 May 07. My VA disability was approved at 70% in July with an effective date of 1 May 07 (my actual date of retirement). MyPay showed in July my VA waiver of $494.00 and CRDP amount of $737.07. On 1 Sep I received my 1st VA disability monthly amount of 1232.00 and on 4 Sep received my military retirement check minus the va waiver just as you refered to in your answer. My question is what about the amounts for May, Jun & July 07? Will I recieve anything for these months as back pay or do I just lose VA disability & CRDP for those months? I asked this quesiton on the VA web site and they refered my question to the Little Rock regional office and LR seems to be clueless on how this whole process works?

[Ricky]

You will get back pay. In most cases this will come from VA as they withhold the entire amount when they should not have. HOWEVER, it could take some time as they will not act until DFAS tells them to do so. At this point DFAS still has several thousand files to review for back pay.

Don't worry about it as a matter of fact try to forget it. One day you will get a letter in the mail from DFAS or VA letting you know about the correction of the problem and that they are providing you will a back pay amount of ???????. That way it will be a surprise to you. hahhahahaha

Now to say good things about DFAS and VA - with new claims mid 06 to current they seem to be getting pretty fast at correcting the problem. they are trying to insure that another large backlog does not occur so it appears they are working newer claims on a different team.

Welcome aboard, enjoy retirement (which means the wife wants you back out of the house hahaha).

Forgot to add: It is wasted time to discuss CRDP with the VA employees. The only thing they know is that CRDP is a DoD program. The VA systems requires them to withhold dollar for dollar so they do. It will all work out in the wash

Edited September 6, 2007 by Ricky

[Ricky]

Cow Girl - all I can say is WOW! hahahahahaha