National Guard Medical Permanent Retirement

J

justamarty

Well-Known Member
PEB Forum Veteran
Registered Member
Hi,

I'm going to give this one more try in the forum for clarification. I apologize for the redundancy, but I finally have the final numbers on my case. I'm a 47 year old National Guard Officer with 22 yrs (have my 20 yr letter) of service, 4450 retirement points. Three deployments. My DoD rating came back at 60%. My VA rating is 90%. I've gotten mixed reports from different channels about what my retirement will look like. My real concern is whether or not I'll continue to get VA benefits while I'm waiting for my first check, which will likely be 3 months or so.

My Retirement Services Officer (RSO) tells me I will get 60% of my high-3 as an O-4 through age 60 and then convert to my longevity retirement. I do not qualify for CSRC but will likely qualify for CRDP when the time comes. However, she tells me I will waive my VA compensation until my longevity retirement in 13 years and will likely get both my longevity retirement and VA at that time. My longevity retirement comes to almost 31% of my high-3 based on points. So, I'll take a retirement paycheck reduction at 60 but gain the VA income.

My Veteran Services Officer tells me I'll get 60% of my high 3 as an O-4 PLUS my VA compensation until I turn 60 (I do have 24 months of qualified service to take prior to 60 if I choose). I'm sure it will work out either way, but both seem very sure of their own takes on what will happen.

My PEBLO reviewed with me as well and seemed to lean more towards what my RSO tells me. I guess we'll see. I guess what I'm really asking is if there's any National Guard or Reservist out there that has a situation similar to my own. Did you have to give up your VA benefit during your interim period between initially receiving permanent med retirement and your eventual longevity retirement?

Hope this makes sense. I appreciate you all for your input.

Thanks.
 
justamarty said:
Hi,

I'm going to give this one more try in the forum for clarification. I apologize for the redundancy, but I finally have the final numbers on my case. I'm a 47 year old National Guard Officer with 22 yrs (have my 20 yr letter) of service, 4450 retirement points. Three deployments. My DoD rating came back at 60%. My VA rating is 90%. I've gotten mixed reports from different channels about what my retirement will look like. My real concern is whether or not I'll continue to get VA benefits while I'm waiting for my first check, which will likely be 3 months or so.

My Retirement Services Officer (RSO) tells me I will get 60% of my high-3 as an O-4 through age 60 and then convert to my longevity retirement. I do not qualify for CSRC but will likely qualify for CRDP when the time comes. However, she tells me I will waive my VA compensation until my longevity retirement in 13 years and will likely get both my longevity retirement and VA at that time. My longevity retirement comes to almost 31% of my high-3 based on points. So, I'll take a retirement paycheck reduction at 60 but gain the VA income.

My Veteran Services Officer tells me I'll get 60% of my high 3 as an O-4 PLUS my VA compensation until I turn 60 (I do have 24 months of qualified service to take prior to 60 if I choose). I'm sure it will work out either way, but both seem very sure of their own takes on what will happen.

My PEBLO reviewed with me as well and seemed to lean more towards what my RSO tells me. I guess we'll see. I guess what I'm really asking is if there's any National Guard or Reservist out there that has a situation similar to my own. Did you have to give up your VA benefit during your interim period between initially receiving permanent med retirement and your eventual longevity retirement?

Hope this makes sense. I appreciate you all for your input.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
My wife medically retired with a 20 year letter as an AGR with 17 AFS so about 6200 points. You will get all of your VA compensation and that offsets your chapter 61 retirement pay so those payments should continue throughout the process. Lets say your VA compensation is 2k for this example. If you have 60% of your High 3 and lets say that comes out to $9,600 then your chapter 61 pension would be $5,760 per month. Now your VA get paid at 2k so that will offset your pension. So your chapter 61 pay and statement will reflect $5,760 - $2,000 VA offset = $3,760 per month direct deposit payment from your Chapter 61 retirement. So in any case you get $5,760 per month but 2k comes from the VA and the rest from your chapter 61 retirement.

You can't get more by law than the combination of your VA compensation + Longevity. So if at qualifying age for your NG retirement your NG retirement pay + VA compensation total is less than $5,760 then your pay won't change. If the total is higher you will get the higher amounts via CRDP. In the previous example your chapter 61 pension is $5,760. Now lets calculate your guard retirement you will get in today's dollars. 4450 retirement points divided by 360 = 12.36 years of active federal service. 12.36 times 2.5% = 30.9%(assuming you didn't elect for the blended system, if you chose blended its only 2% instead of 2.5%). Now 30.9% times $9,600 = $2,966.40 for your Guard Pension. Take that number and add $2,000 for for VA = $4,966.40. Since your chapter 61 retirement is higher you have already maxed out your possible income. In fact if you choose to get your Guard pension + VA compensation you would get less money. Now take all those same numbers but change the VA compensation to $4,000. With CRDP you would have $6,966.40. As you can see that is more than your chapter 61 pension. So when you qualify for your Guard retirement + CRDP you net more compensation compared to $5,760.

I am being every detailed with examples because it's all about the numbers. Until you qualify for CRDP or approved for CRSC just know your max pay will be your chapter 61 pension amount. However, once you reach the age for another retirement it doesn't always mean you will receive more compensation.
 
Thanks so much! That actually makes sense. Your calculations were more or less in line with many I've done. I was closer to understanding it than I thought. Now I just have to play the waiting game.my retirement date is 29FEB. Can't believe it can be 3-4 months (or longer) from what I've heard until I'll get my first check.

I have the savings to draw on in the interim....I just know I'll hate seeing the decline month after month for awhile. At least the VA will keep coming though.

Thanks again!
 
justamarty said:
Thanks so much! That actually makes sense. Your calculations were more or less in line with many I've done. I was closer to understanding it than I thought. Now I just have to play the waiting game.my retirement date is 29FEB. Can't believe it can be 3-4 months (or longer) from what I've heard until I'll get my first check.

I have the savings to draw on in the interim....I just know I'll hate seeing the decline month after month for awhile. At least the VA will keep coming though.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Why did you retire on the last day of the month? Typically thats a HUGE no no at least for Active Duty. If you are active duty that delays VA compensation by an extra month. It may not hurt you if you are TPU but just saying since this is the first time I have seen anyone retire on the last day of the month. I would have chosen to retire a day or 2 earlier as to not affect pay after. This all has to do with how VA compensation works for active duty. If you retire on the last day of the month then it takes several months to get first VA check.

As far as your chapter 61 pension you should receive your first check April 1st.
 
Thanks for the insight. There was no choice involved whatsoever on the date. Since I'm Guard, it's not like I have transition leave or any sort of PCS. That said, I already was in the VA system receiving disability for the past 4 years (minus days i drilled during any month), so my disability is still flowing. I'll be thrilled if I get a retirement check April 1st...or May 1st for that matter!

Thanks!
 
Is it beneficial to use the military compensation calculator that this located on U.S. Dept of Defense website? It is the same one that it will take you to from the self-service in iPPSA.
 
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