If you receive Voluntary Separation Incentive (VSI) or Special Separation Bonus (SSB) and later qualify for retired or retainer pay, you will be required to repay the full gross VSI/SSB paid to date. You will receive a notification letter 90 days before your recoupment begins.
Repayment will be made through monthly deductions from your retired pay at a rate of 40 percent of your monthly pay. Lump sum repayments are not allowed, but you can request that we increase your monthly payment amount by sending us a signed written request.
If the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is also recouping payments, we will coordinate with them to avoid over-collection. We deduct your VA award from your gross retired pay, and then withhold 40 percent of that amount for recoupment purposes. Additionally, you may send us any documentation you have showing the amount the VA collected.
Taxability We cannot change previously issued 1099R forms, nor can we recover any funds sent to the Internal Revenue Service to cover the taxes on the payments already made to you.
When we recoup VSI/SSB payments, we treat it like a pre-tax deduction. That is, we reduce your taxable income by the amount we deduct for the recoupment each month.
For Example: If you received a gross separation payment for $60,000 less Federal Income Tax Withholding of $12,000, you would have received a net check for $48,000. We will recoup the gross amount of $60,000.
If you become eligible for $2,500 per month from retired pay, less a VA waiver of $200 you would have an adjusted gross taxable income of $2,300. We recoup at the rate of 40% of gross income, which would be $920.
Your adjusted gross taxable income will be reduced by the amount being recouped ($2,300 less $920) leaving a new taxable income amount of $1380.
Waivers This is not a debt, but rather a recoupment. We are required by law to recoup these separation payments; therefore, we cannot consider waivers.
Hardship
You can request a more lenient repayment plan if you are experiencing financial hardship. We will consider your application for hardship if the recoupment prevents you from meeting the costs necessary for essential subsistence. These essentials include food, housing, public utilities, clothing, transportation, and medical care.
Your notification letter will include a Financial Statement of Debtor and a set of instructions. Please follow the instructions and return the Financial Statement of Debtor within 30 days of receipt of the letter to the address below. You can also submit the statement any time your financial status changes and results in a hardship:
DFAS
U.S. Military Retired Pay
P.O. Box 7130
London, KY 40742-7130
If financial hardship is found, the recoupment rate will be reduced based on your financial condition and you will be required to submit a new application annually. The minimum recoupment rate is 10 percent.
My intentions are to help, my advice maybe wrong, be your own advocate and know what is in your C-File and the 38 CFR that governs your disabilities and conditions.
Do your own homework. No one knows the veteran’s symptoms like the veteran. Never Give Up.
I do not give my consent for anyone to view my personal VA records.
Caluza Triangle – Caluza vs Brown defined what is necessary for service connection. See COVA– CALUZA V. BROWN–TOTAL RECALL
This has to be MEDICALLY Documented in your records:
Current Diagnosis. (No diagnosis, no Service Connection.)
In-Service Event or Aggravation.
Nexus (link- cause and effect- connection) or Doctor’s Statement close to: “The Veteran’s (current diagnosis) is at least as likely due to x Event in military service”
VA has gotten away with (mis) interpreting their ambigious, , vague regulations, then enforcing them willy nilly never in Veterans favor.
They justify all this to congress by calling themselves a "pro claimant Veteran friendly organization" who grants the benefit of the doubt to Veterans.
This is not true,
Proof:
About 80-90 percent of Veterans are initially denied by VA, pushing us into a massive backlog of appeals, or worse, sending impoverished Veterans "to the homeless streets" because when they cant work, they can not keep their home. I was one of those Veterans who they denied for a bogus reason: "Its been too long since military service". This is bogus because its not one of the criteria for service connection, but simply made up by VA. And, I was a homeless Vet, albeit a short time, mostly due to the kindness of strangers and friends.
Hadit would not be necessary if, indeed, VA gave Veterans the benefit of the doubt, and processed our claims efficiently and paid us promptly. The VA is broken.
A huge percentage (nearly 100 percent) of Veterans who do get 100 percent, do so only after lengthy appeals. I have answered questions for thousands of Veterans, and can only name ONE person who got their benefits correct on the first Regional Office decision. All of the rest of us pretty much had lengthy frustrating appeals, mostly having to appeal multiple multiple times like I did.
I wish I know how VA gets away with lying to congress about how "VA is a claimant friendly system, where the Veteran is given the benefit of the doubt". Then how come so many Veterans are homeless, and how come 22 Veterans take their life each day? Va likes to blame the Veterans, not their system.
However, (and I have no idea of knowing whether or not you would likely succeed) Im unsure of why you seem to be so adamant against getting an increase in disability compensation.
When I buy stuff, say at Kroger, or pay bills, I have never had anyone say, "Wait! Is this money from disability compensation, or did you earn it working at a regular job?" Not once. Thus, if you did get an increase, likely you would have no trouble paying this with the increase compensation.
However, there are many false rumors out there that suggest if you apply for an increase, the VA will reduce your benefits instead.
That rumor is false but I do hear people tell Veterans that a lot. There are strict rules VA has to reduce you and, NOT ONE of those rules have anything to do with applying for an increase.
Yes, the VA can reduce your benefits, but generally only when your condition has "actually improved" under ordinary conditions of life.
Unless you contacted the VA within 72 hours of your medical treatment, you may not be eligible for reimbursement, or at least that is how I read the link, I posted above. Here are SOME of the rules the VA must comply with in order to reduce your compensation benefits:
NOTE: TO PROVE CAUSE OF DEATH WILL LIKELY REQUIRE AN AUTOPSY. This means if you die of a SC condtion, your spouse would need to do an autopsy to prove cause of death to be from a SC condtiond. If you were P and T for 10 full years, then the cause of death may not matter so much.
Question
pacmanx1
VSI/SSB Recoupment
If you receive Voluntary Separation Incentive (VSI) or Special Separation Bonus (SSB) and later qualify for retired or retainer pay, you will be required to repay the full gross VSI/SSB paid to date. You will receive a notification letter 90 days before your recoupment begins.
Repayment will be made through monthly deductions from your retired pay at a rate of 40 percent of your monthly pay. Lump sum repayments are not allowed, but you can request that we increase your monthly payment amount by sending us a signed written request.
If the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is also recouping payments, we will coordinate with them to avoid over-collection. We deduct your VA award from your gross retired pay, and then withhold 40 percent of that amount for recoupment purposes. Additionally, you may send us any documentation you have showing the amount the VA collected.
When we recoup VSI/SSB payments, we treat it like a pre-tax deduction. That is, we reduce your taxable income by the amount we deduct for the recoupment each month.
For Example: If you received a gross separation payment for $60,000 less Federal Income Tax Withholding of $12,000, you would have received a net check for $48,000. We will recoup the gross amount of $60,000.
If you become eligible for $2,500 per month from retired pay, less a VA waiver of $200 you would have an adjusted gross taxable income of $2,300. We recoup at the rate of 40% of gross income, which would be $920.
Your adjusted gross taxable income will be reduced by the amount being recouped ($2,300 less $920) leaving a new taxable income amount of $1380.
You can request a more lenient repayment plan if you are experiencing financial hardship. We will consider your application for hardship if the recoupment prevents you from meeting the costs necessary for essential subsistence. These essentials include food, housing, public utilities, clothing, transportation, and medical care.
Your notification letter will include a Financial Statement of Debtor and a set of instructions. Please follow the instructions and return the Financial Statement of Debtor within 30 days of receipt of the letter to the address below. You can also submit the statement any time your financial status changes and results in a hardship:
DFAS
U.S. Military Retired Pay
P.O. Box 7130
London, KY 40742-7130
If financial hardship is found, the recoupment rate will be reduced based on your financial condition and you will be required to submit a new application annually. The minimum recoupment rate is 10 percent.
http://www.dfas.mil/retiredmilitary/plan/separation-payments/vsi-ssb-recoupment.html
My intentions are to help, my advice maybe wrong, be your own advocate and know what is in your C-File and the 38 CFR that governs your disabilities and conditions.
Do your own homework. No one knows the veteran’s symptoms like the veteran. Never Give Up.
I do not give my consent for anyone to view my personal VA records.
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