Are military retirement benefits unfair? (AF, policy, weapons, housing)
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The difference is this: As I've said a couple of times, retirement is not a "pension," it's a "pay." That means like all military "pays" it's part of the annual military pay appropriation by Congress. The portion of retirement compensation that is considered "disability" is not a military pay, however, and it's part of the Veteran's Administration appropriation, so it's coming out of a different federal budget pot.
Yes, understood.
I had a Legal Officer (O-6) explain to a group of us that retirement was not a pension but that you were still in the military at a reduced rate of pay. It was a good briefing, and I know I have forgotten a lot of salient points he made. It was 1972.
That only happens if you are rated less than 50% disabled. If you are 50% or more you receive your retirement and disability intact.
And they only look at issues you had required medical care for while you were in the service. It has to be documented somewhere in your records.
Hmmmm... You are correct. However that was not in effect when I retired. Thanks for sharing.
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Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) is a Department of Defense (DoD) program that allows some individuals to receive both military retired pay and VA disability compensation. This dual receipt was prohibited until the CRDP program began on Jan. 1, 2004. CRDP is a "phase in" of benefits that gradually restores a retiree's VA disability offset. This means that an eligible person's retired pay will gradually increase each year until the phase in is complete in Jan. 2014.
Effective Jan. 1, 2005, Veterans rated 100 percent disabled by VA, including those receiving benefits at the 100 percent rate due to individual unemployability (IU), are entitled to full CRDP without being phased in.
The VA now encourages people to claim any and everything. In fact, my buddy who's a former Marine and works for the VA, encouraged me to make up that I had tinnitus to get a disability rating.
In my reserve in processing, the VA rep told us to try to get anything approved for a rating. The current military culture has turned into a game of trying to get the highest rating possible. Nearly everyone in my TAPS class talked about how they were hoping for at least a 30% rating.
One friend confessed to me that he faked sleep apnea problems and did a test before he got out to make his claim more legit. He's a perfectly healthy 60% disabled vet.
The system needs serious work. I have other friends who actually have legitimate problems but were denied a claim by the VA.
So the system is so easy to scam that those that don't have disabilities can get rated but for some reason the ones with actual injuries get denied?
All the other places people are getting government handouts why do you pick military members/vets (who actually did something deserving of benefits) to rally against instead of spending your time and efforts on all the money given to those who do/did nothing? At least the military members paid/pay taxes unlike most in other programs that are getting government assistance.
Sure there are some people scamming the system, however, I'm more concerned with the billions going to all those on welfare who are doing nothing but popping out more kids and being a drain on society.
So the system is so easy to scam that those that don't have disabilities can get rated but for some reason the ones with actual injuries get denied?
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic. Do you think it's fair that people who suffered actual injuries can't get a disability but the ones who fake tinnitus and sleep apnea are getting ratings?
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All the other places people are getting government handouts why do you pick military members/vets (who actually did something deserving of benefits) to rally against instead of spending your time and efforts on all the money given to those who do/did nothing? At least the military members paid/pay taxes unlike most in other programs that are getting government assistance.
I''m sorry, but being a veteran does not give a person free reign to cheat the government out of money by faking injuries.
Veterans deserve their benefits. They don't deserve money from the VA for fake injuries.
I hate welfare cheats just as much as I hate VA cheats. A thief is a thief.
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Sure there are some people scamming the system, however, I'm more concerned with the billions going to all those on welfare who are doing nothing but popping out more kids and being a drain on society.
So am I. That doesn't mean it's OK to be scamming the VA system.
I'm more concerned that those that actually need help get it. I don't think people who have fake injuries should be bilking the government hundreds of dollars a month on the backs of tax payers.
I wasn't being sarcastic, I was pointing out the silliness of insinuating that people can fake an injury and get rated but legitimate injuries get turned down. Why/how could a fake illness/injury get preferential treatment over a real one? If the system is so lax that fake injuries can get through then surely real injuries wouldn't be weeded out by the same system.
That's like saying I wasn't really in an accident but told my insurance company I was and they took my word and paid me money but when I was really in an accident and they seen all the damage they turned me down.
The VA has a rating system and if a person loses an arm it is rated at a certain level. If another veteran has three items those items can equal or surpass the rating of the person who lost an arm. Of course the person that lost the arm looks worse and is more noticeable, however, that doesn't make the three items by the other veteran any less significant.
Do you spend the same amount of time and effort carrying on about welfare waste, welfare fraud and various other entitlement programs as you do military and veterans benefits? That is my point...it doesn't matter if you hate welfare cheats just as much if you're only creating an uproar over veterans compensation and benefits, which you spend a lot of time doing.
It's extremely generous. A retired Officer's pension is worth much more than a million dollars. This isn't even including their regular compensation is in the upper tier of the general public.
Of course, the service member earns it. Constant moves, deploying, etc...
The gripe comes how well the military personnel and retirees have been shielded from the worst economy since the great depression. You can't really expect much sympathy from the public when much of the population saw their 401K's and house values plummet. Not too mention the high unemployment rate. Compared to the rest of the public, the military retirees and current active members are doing extremely well.
You have to understand this one thing, it was the politicians who created that mess along with the unnessary wars which increased the use for veterans need for disability help. It wa the politicians who for years lined their pockets along with their buddies on Wall St and had the American people bail them out. As far as I'm concerned the politicians are the ones that should have their pensions and pay cut. People do not realize how many perks and benefits that the politicians get in the first place not to mention the backroom deals that they make with thr lobbyist.
An O-5 at twenty years makes $8422 (the 2014 proposed number). $8422/2 equals 4211 per month for life. Not accounting for COLA raises, that works out to 2,021,280 in today's dollars over 40 years. O-4's make $7356 per month. This doesn't include free college, disability that's tax free and medical care.
A retired O-5 makes 50K a year in pension payments at age 42. No other retirement plan else even comes close to comparing to that.
But what you are not taking into account as well is that the majority of the officers and very, very few enlisted make that rank. The average retirement rank for enlistment is an E6-E7 and officers usually retire at the rank of O3-O4
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