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How Is Retro Pay Calculated?

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SolInvictus

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Hello family, I have a general question regarding retro pay. How is it calculated? Do they pay the vet the difference of the combined rating of his total claim, or is each individual claim assessed on its own merits and compensated back to the date it was originally claimed? I'm confused because suppose a vet was at 70% combined. Then files a claim or reopened a claim for PTSD and tbi. This vet had been previously denied service connection for these two. Then he is awarded 100% sc. Now will the retro compensate him for the difference between the combined previous rating of 70% and the new 100% combined rate? Or would he be retro paid for each individual claim, that is to say PTSD and tbi separate and distinct from the total. Now in my math compensating him for each individual claim sounds like a much more favorable outcome that using the total sum formula because the former adds up to significantly more, I'm just not so sure the va pseudo math works the same way. As always, I appreciate and am grateful for all educated and generous input.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Hello family, I have a general question regarding retro pay. How is it calculated? Do they pay the vet the difference of the combined rating of his total claim, or is each individual claim assessed on its own merits and compensated back to the date it was originally claimed? I'm confused because suppose a vet was at 70% combined. Then files a claim or reopened a claim for PTSD and tbi. This vet had been previously denied service connection for these two. Then he is awarded 100% sc. Now will the retro compensate him for the difference between the combined previous rating of 70% and the new 100% combined rate? Or would he be retro paid for each individual claim, that is to say PTSD and tbi separate and distinct from the total. Now in my math compensating him for each individual claim sounds like a much more favorable outcome that using the total sum formula because the former adds up to significantly more, I'm just not so sure the va pseudo math works the same way. As always, I appreciate and am grateful for all educated and generous input.

You get the new combined rate from the date of the award, less whatever you've been paid at the old rate.

pr

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Appreciate your prompt assistance PR and I thought that might be the type of pseudo math the va would prefer. So how would they then calculate a retro if you win a claim after you reach 100% bracket. I mean wouldn't they in essence be compensating you for the individual new claim you won? Or have they invented a new math for that scenario as well? Thanks again PR.

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PR is correct.

Retro is often very hard to calculate. You have to check the rates for each applicable year. Then, when kids become age 18, the "come off". And, as Philip pointed out, you have to deduct the amount paid each month.

You have to figure each month individually and then add them up.

Your retro will begin the month AFTER the effective date.

The effective date will be the later of the "facts found", the date you applied, or the whim of the regional office decision maker, which ever is later.

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PR is correct.

Retro is often very hard to calculate. You have to check the rates for each applicable year. Then, when kids become age 18, the "come off". And, as Philip pointed out, you have to deduct the amount paid each month.

You have to figure each month individually and then add them up.

Your retro will begin the month AFTER the effective date.

The effective date will be the later of the "facts found", the date you applied, or the whim of the regional office decision maker, which ever is later.

So in effect the house wins regardless right. Heads they win tails we lose. And all a poor vet can do is pray and take solace in the idea that his brothers before him have been dealt a similar hand, and probably will be for ages to come. Thanks Broncovet and PR, for staying in the fight to serve as a lighthouse of knowledge for those in peril in these treacherous seas.

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Yep. The "house" has the advantage. There is significant financial incentive built into the system for the VA to delay you.

First, they never pay interest. Next, you may well abandon your claim. You may also die before you get benefits.

Even if you persist and appeal and win, you always lose your interest on your money, so the Va gets an interest free loan from disabled Veterans.

Until such time that this "financial incentive" for the VA to delay you, it will continue.

It is like a contractor who gets paid by the hour, no matter how long the job takes...and then gets constant raises for inflation. Why should he finish the job? Then he would just have to try to find another one..and there may not be one.

Edited by broncovet
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Yep. The "house" has the advantage. There is significant financial incentive built into the system for the VA to delay you.

First, they never pay interest. Next, you may well abandon your claim. You may also die before you get benefits.

Even if you persist and appeal and win, you always lose your interest on your money, so the Va gets an interest free loan from disabled Veterans.

Until such time that this "financial incentive" for the VA to delay you, it will continue.

It is like a contractor who gets paid by the hour, no matter how long the job takes...and then gets constant raises for inflation. Why should he finish the job? Then he would just have to try to find another one..and there may not be one.

That makes all the sense in the world when you look at it through that lense. So it isn't at all unreasonable for them to pepertually fail in their "strenuous efforts" to fix the flaws in the system. Why work yourself out of a very lucrative job right.

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