20 years worth it to take higher DoD offer?

Thatchic2

Thatchic2

PEB Forum Regular Member
PEB Forum Veteran
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Hi all,

I will end up making another post later about my case but I have what may be an odd question and is totally hypothetical at this point.

I'm currently in the PEB process awaiting my QTC appointments. I have 20 years and 2 months in but took the Redux payment at 15 years so my retirement at 20 is only 40%. Here is the hypothetical. If after everything is done and I get offered something like DoD 70% VA 90%, does that really mean 70% of my base pay? And if I took the DoD option, even though it's taxed, does the 90% the VA offered just go away because I chose the DoD's offer?
 
Since you are active duty and over 20, the option of choosing the higher percent of either VA or DOD, does not apply. It is mainly applied for IDES Soldiers below 20 years of Service.

When everything is done you will get two separate deposits, a DOD check and a VA check regardless of being MEB.
While clearing and before you final out from the service, your finance office will explore all options, choosing between the MEB DOD percent and your years from length of service percent, to find out which is more beneficial to the Soldier. With your hyp. Example:

DOD 70%(high 36) vs LOS 20 year+;
So 70% of high 36 is the higher of the two

**However, the DOD 70% is temporary. DFAS will pay you at this rate while waiting for your VA compensation for CRDP. Once your VA compensation for example 90% kicks in, Then your DOD% will be reverted back to Length of service (LOS) percent and to calculate it: 2.5 x20 and 2 monts yrs=50.2%.

So for the DOD check you will receive 70% for about 3 months, then after that it's reverted back to 50.2%.


Hopefully this helps
 
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Even though over 20, the option to choose chapter 61 if found unfit still applies. There are some scenarios where a high disability % works out better than VA + CRDP. FMR 7b chapter 64 says DFAS is supposed to automatically calculate which pays more, CRDP or chapter 61.

VA pay never goes away. If chapter 61 pay exceeds VA pay, VA pays first and DoD pays what's left over.
 
ScoutCC,
What happens if you are at 20 years and both DOD and VA are rated at 100%? How would they possibly calculate that pay?
 
DoD is capped at 75% unless over 30 yrs.

They do the two ways of calculating retirement, 75% for chapter 61, and LoS or 50% for 20 years. Whichever is higher, 75% vs 50% + VA.

So which is better depends on base pay amount they do the % off of and # of dependents, which affects VA pay.

I find that hard to follow, so scenarios:
Retirement base pay calculated at 6000, 20 years of service, took redux.

Disability 100% DoD and 100% VA.
Chapter 61 is worth 4500/month (6000*.75)
LOS is worth 2400/month (6000*.4)
VA with spouse is ~3000/month.
4500 vs 2400+3000 = CRDP wins out for a total of 5400/month

Disability is 70% DoD and 80% VA
Chapter 61 worth 4200/month (6000*.7)
LOS is worth, 2400/month (6000*.4)
VA with spouse is ~1700
4200 vs 2400+1700 = so the chapter 61 beats out 4100 from CRDP. Tax rules are still likely make CRDP better though.
 
Dude you are awesome for that breakdown! I appreciate the detailed explanation as I try to make some sort of plan for this next stage in life.
 
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