Readers of Tom Philpott’s Military Update column sound off.

Disabled Retirees Question ‘VA Retro Pay’ Delays

I find it hard to understand the big problem for Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) in calculating VA Retro payments.

I got upgraded to total 100-percent disabled for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They listed the back date of my award. So I took my Retiree Account Summaries and my little calculator and in five minutes I knew what my back pay should be.

Just to get the pay I am authorized I had to keep calling the VA. They said the problem was with DFAS. I called DFAS and they would say the problem was with the VA. Finally, I got hold of a person in the VA who listened to what I had to say. Within a day the problem was solved. I received what I was due the next payday.

It amazes me what can happen when you finally are able to talk to someone who goes that extra step to get the job done.

CRAIG U.
Chief Aviation Machinist Mate USN-Ret
Via e-mail

Great update on the VA Retro Pay program.

DFAS would not be in this predicament if the retroactive CRSC (Combat-Related Special Compensation) and CRDP (Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay) payments were made immediately when VA disability rating increases.

Through 2004 and 2005 and early 2006, DFAS was advising veterans that CRDP was not payable retroactively. I was told this in March 2006 after my disability rating was increased from 90 to 100 percent. My retroactive payment from VA was promptly received but no retroactive CRDP payment came from DFAS.

JAMES LARIMER
USN-Ret.
Via e-mail

DFAS pays over a million people every two weeks but they're not able to pay within a year what 133,000 retirees are owed in back pay? This stinks.

Now we are told this will take until November. What next, 2008? Who holds these people accountable? Why are they able to move deadlines? People are dying as they wait.

I have calculated my back pay and I'm no accountant. It took 15 minutes. There has got to be something else going on. I have to wait. There is no way of making contact with the people who are supposed to have this under control. If not for your updates, we wouldn’t know what’s going on.

AL LYNCH
U.S. Army-Ret.
Via e-mail

I am confused as to why it is taking so long to compute VA retro pay. If DFAS had a computer-generated chart indicating total amount due based on percentage of disability and effective date of eligibility, then all it would have to do is create a file containing eligible personnel’s effective date of disability rating and amount of pay received to date; bump that file up against the chart using rating and effective date as the match; subtract the amount already received from due amount and that would be retro pay due.

At the same time, a file can be created to update the main file and generate the necessary transactions.

JIM TALLEY
Chief Master Sergeant, USAF-Ret.
Via e-mail

I was rated at 100-percent disabled, back dated to July 2003. I received a letter a month ago saying I was going to receive a check from the Air Force for $5700. The money would be paid in 10 days. It appeared the VA too owed me money, the letter said.

Ten days came and went. When I contacted the Air Force I was told it would be June before I received the money. They said the letter to me was sent prematurely. They should just pay me.

DEAN B.
USAF-Ret.
Via e-mail

PAY EX-SPOUSE NOW OR LATER

My husband was ordered to give his former spouse half of his retirement pay when they divorced a number of years ago. By court order, upon the commencement of his retirement pay at age 60, he was to notify her of his filing so she could file.

My husband recently celebrated his 60th birthday and filed for Navy retirement, sending notification to his ex and a copy of the court order, along with his paperwork, to the Navy. We are receiving retired pay and based on the amount believe that his former spouse has not filed to receive her benefits. We are not in touch with her to ask. We are concerned that we will have to repay an amount once she files. How does that work? Will she simply begin drawing retirement pay whenever she files, affecting only future retired pay, or will we be debited for the amount she should have collected from the date of his filing?

S. H.
Via e-mail

We asked the Defense Finance and Accounting Service for help on this one. The Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act (USFSPA) provides a way for former spouses to receive a court-ordered portion of military retired pay directly from DFAS. A number of legal requirements must be met for DFAS to make former spouse payments and not all former spouses will be eligible.

Payments typically are based on court-ordered awards for divorce, dissolution of marriage or annulment. These orders are binding on the parties to the action. DFAS is not a party. Its responsibility is to implement payments consistent with USFSPA requirements. So even though DFAS may not make payments on a particular case because it does not meet statutory requirements, a retiree who has been ordered to pay a former spouse a portion of his or her retired pay is still bound by provisions in the court order.

A former spouse who seeks direct payments from DFAS must apply using DD Form 2293 and a certified court order. If all requirements are met, DFAS will process the request and send payments (limited to 50 percent of retired pay) to the former spouse or electronically to her bank account. Once payments begin, they continue until the member or former spouse dies unless the court order contains a provision to end payments on an earlier date.

DFAS payments are made prospectively only, however. Therefore payments owed to a former spouse before an application for payments is approved are the responsibility of the retiree. Retirees are notified when DFAS receives an application from a former spouse seeking a portion of retired pay.  – Tom Philpott 

Letters may be edited for clarity or length.  Write to Military Forum, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA  20120-1111, send e-mail to militaryforum@aol.com or visit www.militaryupdate.com