Veterans have special benefits that they qualify for. One of them is the Combat Related Compensation. This is a special compensation designed to compensate a wounded Veteran. Instead of having their military retirement pay cut by the amount of their VA disability, they can have both full retirement pay, and their full Veterans Administration compensation.
Qualified military retirees that have twenty years or more of service, and who are retired, and who have a combat related disability certified by the VA are eligible for this program. In 2004, the National Defense Authorization Act came into being and they set up provisions to take care of Veterans who had been insured and received disabilities as a result of:
-Hazardous Duty injuries.
-Armed Conflict type injuries.
-Being involved or functioning in as a unit in conditions simulating War.
-Being involved with being an instrumentality of War.
This program is new, and it is not phased in over ten years like some programs are. Once a retiree arrives at retirement age and is deemed qualified, they will then receive their full regular pay and retirement allowances, plus whatever amount of full Veterans administration pay that is based on the rating of disability they hold. This new CRSC legislation is pretty new legislation, and recently revised and changed. Some of the policies involved in the CRSC are left up to the retiree’s parent branch of the service or military branch. Some of these provisions may wind up changing or being tweaked here and there in the coming months.
Eligibility of a wounded retiree for the CRSC program is based on the following requirements:
-Retiree had to have been awarded a combat related disability rating from the VA of at least 60 percent or greater.
-The Retiree has to be the recipient of VA compensation.
-The Retiree has to apply to their own service branch and be approved for the CRSC program.
-The Retiree has to have had twenty years of active service, or seven thousand two hundred points for retired reservists. NOTE:Â Reservists are not eligible to retire with full access to CRSC until sixty years of age.
To sign up for the Combat Special Related Compensation, you have to first talk to your individual branch of the service. Each branch has the right and authority to decide if a retiree or Servicemember qualifies under the program. You should start the process by submitting DD form 2860.
