20 August 2019.
Upon further review...
Although the DFAS pays benefits that have the titles of CRDP (Concurrent Retirement Disability Pay and CRSC (Combat Related Special Compensation), those terms (CRDP and CRSC) are also used by the VA to categorize
payments of VA compensation associated with those program. Those payments are made under the authority of those two programs, but have separate funding.
Before explaining in more detail, it is important to remember that the payments made by DFAS under those terms are:
CRDP: Restoration of retired pay or "the mechanism that allows concurrent receipt."
CRSC: Replacement of waived retired pay associated with combat related disabilities.
Payments made by the VA that are associated with CRDP and CRSC are VA compensation. Additionally, the VA does not evaluate nor approve CRSC claims or payments.
Audit Error Worksheets (AEW) (documentation provided by DFAS after an audit) are the source of information that the VA uses to make certain retroactive payments of VA compensation to retirees.
VA Internal Processing of AEWs:
[The Redesigned Automated Decision Letter (RADL) was implemented earlier this year.]
M21-1
III.v.5.A.8.t. Notification of Award Adjustments Associated With the Processing of an AEW
After processing an AEW, notify the Veteran who was the subject of the AEW of any associated award adjustments.
Notes:
Enclose a copy of the AEW with the notice.
Use of the AEW Assistant to generate the notice is mandatory. (The AEW Assistant is accessible through the
Letter Creator tool.)
The table below shows the text the decision notice must contain.
If the Veteran is entitled to a retroactive payment of benefits,
Letter Creator tool inserts the following paragraph:
Based on the information in your military retired pay files and VA records, you are entitled to a retroactive [CRDP or CRSC] compensation payment of [amount]. This payment covers the period [month, day, and year] through [month, day, and year]. The figures used to calculate this amount are shown on the last page of this letter.
If the Veteran is
not entitled to a retroactive payment of benefits because VA did not withhold benefits based on the Veteran’s receipt of MRP,
Letter Creator tool inserts the following paragraph:
Based on the information in your military retired pay files and VA records, you are not entitled to a retroactive [CRDP or CRSC] compensation payment. All prior withholdings from your VA compensation payments were for [reason for prior withholdings, such as drill pay adjustments, apportionment adjustments, etc.] and not for retired pay. Therefore, no additional adjustments will be made in your compensation award for [
CRDP or CRSC].
If the Veteran is
not entitled to a retroactive payment of benefits because the Veteran already received a lump sum payment (representing an award adjustment based on the Veteran’s receipt of CRDP/CRSC) for the same time period covered by the AEW,
Letter Creator tool inserts the following paragraph:
Based on the information in your military retired pay files and VA records, you are not entitled to a retroactive compensation payment because according to our records, you were issued a lump sum payment in the amount of [amount previously paid] on [month, day, and year]. This payment represented [
CRDP or CRSC] for the period [month, day, and year] to [month, day, and year]. You are not due any additional [
CRDP or CRSC] payments from VA. If you think your Retired Pay Center (RPC) may owe you additional [
CRDP or CRSC],
please contact them at the numbers shown below.
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Opinion: This unusual use of semantics is going to cause some confusion regarding retroactive payments in some cases. It reminds me of George Foreman who gave the name "George" to each of his five sons...
Ron