Getting Letters in the Mail from DFAS

Alex4621

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
So I was medically retired on 28 July 2020. Navy Chief with 14 years (20 days shy of my 15 year mark). VA found me at 90% and the Navy found me at 70% - I am taking the VA Disability. Submitted my DD-214 in EBenefits and still waiting for the direct deposit...which should arrive in October I hope.

That being said, I keep receiving letters and emails from DFAS welcoming me to DOD retirement and telling me about "changes and adjustments to my retirement account statement (RAS)". I even received a letter in the mail that gave me an exact dollar amount for what the 70% would be. Now when I log into Mypay, the "RAS" option isn't even available within my login.

Also, I thought that, being under 20 years, I could not receive both VA disability and DOD retirement. Why am I getting these notifications from DFAS?

-Alex
 
Hello @Alex4621

1. You do qualify for medical retired pay; you just don't receive any funds from it since your VA compensation reduces the retired pay to zero. That does not occur in all cases. Some medical retirees receive residual retirement pay after the waiver.

2. Although you were probably told that you would receive either VA comp or retired pay...that is inaccurate. If one elects to receive VA comp, their retired pay is reduced dollar for dollar in the amount of the VA compensation. As stated above, there are cases where there is remaining retired pay.

3. Even though you receive zero retired pay, there still is an accounting for it at DFAS. Each time there is a COLA increase, a new DFAS RAS (payment statement) will be generated.
Since VA comp usually increases at the same time, I doubt you will ever receive any funds from DFAS unless you qualify for CRSC or your VA comp is reduced.

4. I cannot think of any scenario where it would be beneficial to decline VA compensation since the retiree does receive any residual retirement pay after the reduction/waiver.

Ron
 
I concur with RonG.
 
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