More on VA . . .

Well, I Googled around and found out how the calculations are done. First the VA awarded me a disability rating of 90% with Special Monthly Compensation. Don't laugh, the SMC as it is called is worth an extra $96 a month (Tax Free!!!). That is all VA disability compensation is tax free from both the Feds and State authorities. I do not have a clue why I was awarded SMC but it is acceptable to me.

But as I previously said, the VA disability compensation was deducted from my retirement pay and then given back to me by the VA (as Tax Free income). So essentially, I was paying my own disability compensation, the sole benefit was that I got it tax free. Congress in its wisdom acknowledged that that was not fair and set about righting a wrong. But they did it over 10 or more years unless one was 100%disabled and unable to work, then that individual did not have to pay his own disability at all. That means he/she collected all the VA compensation in addition to the retirement pay.

The correction is known to us VA disabled folks as Concurrent Receipt Disability Pay (or CRDP). It turns out that it is a percentage calculation over a 10 year period with certian adjustments. So the numbers can be calculated. It is not a simple table but a table of percentages couple with other exceptions (sounds like the IRS, doesn't it?). Well it is a government agency that deals with money.

Some of my disabilities are also known as Combat Related Special Compensation or CRSC. In my case specifically, my Diabetes Mellitus, Type II is a CRSC. However, you can not collect twice. So one elects to either accept CRSC or CRDP whichever pays the greater amount. In my case, it is CRDP.

It will take the DFAS - that's the people who pay me the military retirement - awhile to get it all correct. That drives Judie wild as it makes all the numbers change. More money one month, less the next until it all settles out. That's just life and deals with the changes as they come. In the end it will settle out to her satisfaction but until then I have take the brunt of the changes. Not a big deal but can be irritable at worst.