Seperation Pay And Va Comp.

[Sgt eve]

Hi again. My spouse received a rating of 30% but he also got sep. pay when he got out and the letter said he would have to pay that back then his monthly comp. would start. Does this sound right?

[Vike17]

Yes, by law the VA must withhold the veterans disability compensation until their sepeartion pay is "payed back." However, in certain circumstances the VA can still release a portion of the compensation while withholding the rest to go towards payning off the severence pay. I'm not quite sure what those special circumsatnces are, maybe someone else can answer that?

Vike 17

[Clayton0417]

What do you do if they are recouping your separation pay and shouldn't be? I found out that they shouldn't be withholding my compensation to pay back the separation pay that I received for a prior period of active duty (38 CFR, para. (a)(5)(ii)).

[huskerfanfl]

You make them aware of the regulation by sending them a copy. Essentially you are filing a Notice of Disagreement, at least that is how they handled it in my case. Of course it may have helped that I wrote my congressman.

[Berta]

There are some cases at the BVA regarding separation pay like:

http://www.va.gov/vetapp06/files2/0605171.txt

I went to the 2006 on the search and found three and I believe this one contains the regs you need.

"Where payment of separation pay or special separation

benefits under 10 U.S.C. § 1174a was made after September 30,

1996, VA will recoup from disability compensation an amount

equal to the total amount of separation pay or special

separation benefits less the amount of Federal income tax

withheld from such pay. 38 C.F.R. § 3.700(a)(5) (2005)."

This is that reg from the watchdog site- however it is dated 1998-

has this reg changed since -anyone?

http://www.washingtonwatchdog.org/document...59/sec1174.html

[Berta]

PS couldnt edit-but wanted to add this -

Huskerfanfl is right- and they changed two decisions I had years back and a VA decision on my daughter's Chap 35 claim-when I attached the regs to the NOD- this was their Education dept on two of those however- it took only three weeks-in each case-

I sure believe in sending them their own regs in any situation that would support a claim.