Congratulations on obtaining relief at the ABCMR. NVLSP and the BigLaw attorneys handling their cases pro bono are a tremendous resource for veterans.
It will likely take 6 months or more for your military records to be corrected to reflect your disability retirement effective May 2012. Particularly with the National Guard Bureau involved, it will take time to get orders cut and for DFAS to calculate and pay any retroactive disability retired pay due. The retired pay calculation will net out any VA benefits received as well as Survivor Benefits Program premiums that would have been paid. You will also need to set up a DFAS retired pay account, which will also involve completing the SBP paperwork. You should be contacted by someone at the US Army Physical Disability Agency to help you start getting the administrative things taken care of.
It is not prudent to apply for CRSC until all of this correction action is complete to ensure that the CRSC office at the Army Human Resources Command has all your updated, corrected information for determining your CRSC eligibility. The Army HRC website has information on CRSC and applications.
Keep in mind that because your disability retirement making you eligible for CRSC was the result of a correction of records, you will be eligible for retroactive CRSC payments back to the corrected retirement date of May 2012, or the date upon which you started receiving VA benefits if later (assuming you meet the combat related and VA eligibility criteria). You are not limited to only 6 years of retroactive CRSC payments.
As a general rule, veterans eligible for military disability retired pay pursuant to Chapter 61, U.S. Code with less than 20 years of active service, became eligible for CRSC effective January 1, 2008, assuming the veteran met the combat-related and VA rating requirements. See 10 U.S.C. § 1413a (the statutory authorization for CRSC); DoD 7000.14-R, Financial Management Regulation, Vol. 7B, Ch. 63 (June 2024) (the DoD regulation implementing the statutory authority).
Although not referenced in the text of either 10 U.S.C. § 1413a or the CRSC provisions of DoD 7000.14-R, a claim for a CRSC payment is subject to the six-year statute of limitations of the Baring Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3702. See Soto v. United States, 92 F.4th 1094 (Fed. Cir. 2024). Accordingly, the government is limited to paying CRSC for the period within six years after the claim accrues. In the CRSC context, claim accrual is the date upon which the veteran became eligible for CRSC, even if the veteran failed to submit a claim.
One exception to the time of claim accrual triggering the six-year limitations period involves a correction of records. If a veteran becomes eligible for CRSC due to a correction of the veteran’s military or naval records (through a lawsuit or correction board action), then the veteran’s claim for the CRSC payment accrues on the date of the record correction. See DoD 7000.14-R, Financial Management Regulation, Vol. 7B, Ch. 10, ¶ 2.3 (June 2024) (“2.3 Statute of Limitations. If a payment is due as a result of a correction of record, the claim for such payment accrues on the date of the correction. A claimant has 6 years from the date of the correction of record to claim the payment owed as a result of the correction of record.”). As a result, the calculation of the amount of any retroactive CRSC payment due would be based on the corrected date of CRSC eligibility resulting from the record correction action (typically the corrected, retroactive date of disability retirement) and would not be subject to the six-year statute of limitations except going forward from the date the court or correction board ordered the correction of record.
When you do apply for CRSC, you should make the factual background regarding the correction of records clear in the CRSC application in continuation sheets to the form. It is important that you make clear to the CRSC office at HRC and DFAS that your retroactive effective date of disability retirement was due to a records correction. This would include the relevant Claims Court decision, ABCMR Record of Proceedings, amended orders and DD 214 (if one), and a copy of DoD 7000.14-R, Financial Management Regulation, Vol. 7B, Ch. 10, ¶ 2.3. Otherwise, you risk getting an analyst who is not familiar with the process who might simply apply the six year statute of limitations without much thought.
