8 Yr rule?

Joecool

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PEB Forum Veteran
Registered Member
I have read some information about this but i am still confused about it.

From what i gather the 8 year rule is that after you serve for 8 years basically all of your conditions become service related. am i correct?

If my understanding is correct then my second question is does DEP time count toward you 8 years?
 
10 USC 1207a provides that if a member has eight years active duty and is currently on active duty, any condition deemed unfitting by a PEB will be rated by the PEB even if it is EPTS w/o aggravation. The VA, however, will only rate service connected conditions.

Mike
 
so then Delayed entry program time does not count?
 
so then Delayed entry program time does not count?

By law, a military service member with over eight years of active Federal service is eligible for disability compensation even if the condition is EPTS. The eight years of active service do no have to be continuous; however, the military service member must be on active-duty orders of more than 30 days for this rule to apply.

If an individual enter military service through the Delayed Entry Program (DEP), this time is not credited toward military retirement. During an individual’s time in the DEP, they are not required to drill and subsequently do not receive any military pay. That said, I was enrolled into the DEP prior to initial military entry onto active duty.

As a direct result, the time served in DEP does not qualify as military service. The individual’s military service begins to credit toward their retirement the day that they report to military basic training, but the time served in DEP is calculated towards military longevity pay. To that extent, my military longevity pay was credited with the time served in the DEP.

Thus, I quite often comment that "possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer."

Best Wishes!
 
By law, a military service member with over eight years of active Federal service is eligible for disability compensation even if the condition is EPTS. The eight years of active service do no have to be continuous; however, the military service member must be on active-duty orders of more than 30 days for this rule to apply.

If an individual enter military service through the Delayed Entry Program (DEP), this time is not credited toward military retirement. During an individual’s time in the DEP, they are not required to drill and subsequently do not receive any military pay. That said, I was enrolled into the DEP prior to initial military entry onto active duty.

As a direct result, the time served in DEP does not qualify as military service. The individual’s military service begins to credit toward their retirement the day that they report to military basic training, but the time served in DEP is calculated towards military longevity pay. To that extent, my military longevity pay was credited with the time served in the DEP.

Thus, I quite often comment that "possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer."

Best Wishes!


Do you happen to know and can post the regulation or law citation that says DEP doesn't count toward the 8-year rule?

Thanks!

V/r,
nwlivewire
 
DEP isn't anything yet alone active duty military; it's just a way to keep track of you while they hope you really join. You're active duty after you swear in the day you're sent to basic. I'm not the one to ask, but I suspect you won't find such a regulation. Just as you won't find one that says the time before dep specifically doesn't count.
 
Do you happen to know and can post the regulation or law citation that says DEP doesn't count toward the 8-year rule?

Thanks!

V/r,
nwlivewire

10 U.S.C. Sec. 1207a (b) states that active service is what counts.
 
Thanks to all that responded.
 
By law, a military service member with over eight years of active Federal service is eligible for disability compensation even if the condition is EPTS. The eight years of active service do no have to be continuous; however, the military service member must be on active-duty orders of more than 30 days for this rule to apply.

If an individual enter military service through the Delayed Entry Program (DEP), this time is not credited toward military retirement. During an individual’s time in the DEP, they are not required to drill and subsequently do not receive any military pay. That said, I was enrolled into the DEP prior to initial military entry onto active duty.

As a direct result, the time served in DEP does not qualify as military service. The individual’s military service begins to credit toward their retirement the day that they report to military basic training, but the time served in DEP is calculated towards military longevity pay. To that extent, my military longevity pay was credited with the time served in the DEP.

Thus, I quite often comment that "possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer."
Best Wishes!

Do you happen to know and can post the regulation or law citation that says DEP doesn't count toward the 8-year rule?

Thanks!

V/r,
nwlivewire
10 U.S.C. Sec. 1207a (b) states that active service is what counts.

Unfortunately, no; but, I shall default to a response from Jason Perry as annotated above. ;)

In retrospect, I was informed about the DEP fact by my U.S. Army Recruiter many years ago; if I recall accurately!

To that extent, his verbalized DEP fact was validated upon my entry onto Active Duty when my military longevity pay was credited with the time I served in the DEP and I received no additional active federal service time; that's recalled accurately!

Thus, I quite often comment that "possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer."

Best Wishes!
 
Unfortunately, no; but, I shall default to a response from Jason Perry as annotated above. ;)

In retrospect, I was informed about the DEP fact by my U.S. Army Recruiter many years ago; if I recall accurately!

To that extent, his verbalized DEP fact was validated upon my entry onto Active Duty when my military longevity pay was credited with the time I served in the DEP and I received no additional active federal service time; that's recalled accurately!

Thus, I quite often comment that "possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer."

Best Wishes!


Glad everyone posted their take on this.

In my situation, I had DEP time - the time between the day I signed an active duty military service contract and the day I actually entered active duty service (the flight day to my boot camp).

I was told way back then that my DEP time counted toward pay/promotion or something like that, but it didn't count toward everything like AD time can count.

Thanks for making this clear. I do know that my DEP time DID count toward which method DFAS used to calculate my IDES disability retirement pay. I signed my first military contract BEFORE 08 SEP 1980. And even though I didn't enter Active Duty military Boot Camp until 31 DEC 1980, I was still credited with the "Final Pay" retirement calculation and DFAS did NOT use the "High 36" calculation.

The difference between the "Final Pay" and the "High 36 Average" resulted in an initial gross, pre-tax difference of 280.00 per month MORE in my enlisted disability pay retirement calculation.

Not that I see anything BIG from it due to the off-set right now. BUT, it does make a difference on the fact I do get some DoD retirement now (280 more than a "High 36" calculation amount), and will get CRDP shortly.

Every little bit adds up.

And because the WTU IDES process took soooo long to get through, I was able to jump over that "8 year rule" hurdle early in this IDES event (which didn't need to be applied in my case anyway, but at least it couldn't be used against me!), and, I was able to cross the retirement finish line with a NG 20-year letter six weeks prior to PDRL discharge, a retirement letter I would have never received and CRDP I would have never received had this IDES process been any quicker than it was.

In the end, had I NOT been injured while on AD, I would NOT have had to worry about the 8-year rule, and, more than likely, I would have made my retirement from the NG in the usual "healthy and normal" fashion, meaning CRDP (or lack of it) would not have EVER become a concern when injured while mobilized.

The 8-year rule, the 20 "Good" years for NG/AR retirement, and CRDP only came up as issues AFTER I was injured-while AD mobilized and undergoing he IDES process.

That's a lot of additional and unnecessary stress to put on an injured Servicemember who has spent the bulk of their adult citizen-soldier working lifetime in service to this nation as a NG/AR Servicemember. The not knowing of how and even if you will even get ANY retirement for all the years of service you spent as a "volunteer/voluntold" is a disconcerting thing to have to go through.

This whole IDES retirement thing is so full of landmines, it got to be a real pain in the arse for me to navigate and get through it. It seemed like everything I had worked towards for sooo many years had now become retirement-at-stake issues - issues that would have never become issues to begin with had I never been mobilized AND injured while on Active Duty Service to my nation and branch of service.


V/r,
nwlivewire
 
Last edited:
Glad everyone posted their take on this.

In my situation, I had DEP time - the time between the day I signed an active duty military service contract and the day I actually entered active duty service (the flight day to my boot camp).

I was told way back then that my DEP time counted toward pay/promotion or something like that, but it didn't count toward everything like AD time can count.

Thanks for making this clear. I do know that my DEP time DID count toward which method DFAS used to calculate my IDES disability retirement pay. I signed my first military contract BEFORE 08 SEP 1980. And even though I didn't enter Active Duty military Boot Camp until 31 DEC 1980, I was still credited with the "Final Pay" retirement calculation and DFAS did NOT use the "High 36" calculation.

The difference between the "Final Pay" and the "High 36 Average" resulted in an initial gross, pre-tax difference of 280.00 per month MORE in my enlisted disability pay retirement calculation.

Not that I see anything BIG from it due to the off-set right now. BUT, it does make a difference on the fact I do get some DoD retirement now (280 more than a "High 36" calculation amount), and will get CRDP shortly.

Every little bit adds up.

And because the WTU IDES process took soooo long to get through, I was able to jump over that "8 year rule" hurdle early in this IDES event (which didn't need to be applied in my case anyway, but at least it couldn't be used against me!), and, I was able to cross the retirement finish line with a NG 20-year letter six weeks prior to PDRL discharge, a retirement letter I would have never received and CRDP I would have never received had this IDES process been any quicker than it was.

In the end, had I NOT been injured while on AD, I would NOT have had to worry about the 8-year rule, and, more than likely, I would have made my retirement from the NG in the usual "healthy and normal" fashion, meaning CRDP (or lack of it) would not have EVER become a concern when injured while mobilized.

The 8-year rule, the 20 "Good" years for NG/AR retirement, and CRDP only came up as issues AFTER I was injured-while AD mobilized and undergoing he IDES process.

That's a lot of additional and unnecessary stress to put on an injured Servicemember who has spent the bulk of their adult citizen-soldier working lifetime in service to this nation as a NG/AR Servicemember. The not knowing of how and even if you will even get ANY retirement for all the years of service you spent as a "volunteer/voluntold" is a disconcerting thing to have to go through.

This whole IDES retirement thing is so full of landmines, it got to be a real pain in the arse for me to navigate and get through it. It seemed like everything I had worked towards for sooo many years had now become retirement-at-stake issues - issues that would have never become issues to begin with had I never been mobilized AND injured while on Active Duty Service to my nation and branch of service.

V/r,
nwlivewire

Wow! Appreciate your experiences referencing this subject, too! ;)

Via the PEB Forum, it's a pleasure to have a capability of sharing military experiences which can potentially assist other military service members and/or military veterans. :cool:

Agreed, the DoD IDES MEB/PEB process is lengthy and cumbersome to say the least, but potentially abundant with military disability compensation benefits upon its conclusion; in my opinion.

Thus, I quite often comment that "possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer."

Best Wishes!
 
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