Based on your factual recitation, it would appear that because your husband's eligibility for CRSC resulted from a record correction in 2023, he would be eligible for retroactive CRSC payments back to January 1, 2008. I recently had a client whose records were corrected by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records due to an order from the US Court of Federal Claims entered in 2023, retroactively placing him on the permanent disability retired list effective August 1, 2013. The client applied for CRSC based on that retroactive disability retirement. Once his claim was approved by Army HRC, DFAS paid CRSC retroactively back to 2013, subject to the CRSC cap.
As a general rule, veterans eligible for military disability retired pay pursuant to Chapter 61, U.S. Code with less than 20 years of active service, became eligible for CRSC effective January 1, 2008, assuming the veteran met the combat-related and VA rating requirements. See 10 U.S.C. § 1413a (the statutory authorization for CRSC); DoD 7000.14-R, Financial Management Regulation, Vol. 7B, Ch. 63 (June 2024) (the DoD regulation implementing the statutory authority).
Although not referenced in the text of either 10 U.S.C. § 1413a or the CRSC provisions of DoD 7000.14-R, a claim for a CRSC payment is subject to the six-year statute of limitations of the Baring Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3702. See Soto v. United States, 92 F.4th 1094 (Fed. Cir. 2024). Accordingly, the government is limited to paying CRSC for the period within six years after the claim accrues. In the CRSC context, claim accrual is the date upon which the veteran became eligible for CRSC, even if the veteran failed to submit a claim.
One exception to the time of claim accrual triggering the six-year limitations period involves a correction of records. If a veteran becomes eligible for CRSC due to a correction of the veteran’s military or naval records (through a lawsuit or correction board action), then the veteran’s claim for the CRSC payment accrues on the date of the record correction. See DoD 7000.14-R, Financial Management Regulation, Vol. 7B, Ch. 10, ¶ 2.3 (June 2024) (“2.3 Statute of Limitations. If a payment is due as a result of a correction of record, the claim for such payment accrues on the date of the correction. A claimant has 6 years from the date of the correction of record to claim the payment owed as a result of the correction of record.”). As a result, the calculation of the amount of any retroactive CRSC payment due would be based on the corrected date of CRSC eligibility resulting from the record correction action (typically the corrected, retroactive date of disability retirement) and would not be subject to the six-year statute of limitations except going forward from the date the court or correction board ordered the correction of record.
If you did not make the factual background regarding the correction of records clear in the CRSC application, you should supplement it to ensure that the service CRSC personnel and DFAS understand the reason for the retroactive effective date of the retirement, including copies of the court's decision, any implementing correction board record of proceeding, and a copy of DoD 7000.14-R, Financial Management Regulation, Vol. 7B, Ch. 10, ¶ 2.3. Otherwise, they may simply apply the six year statute of limitations without much thought.
