Beginning in 2014, retired servicemembers eligible for Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) will no longer have to waive any portion of their military retirement in order to receive VA disability compensation. The CRDP program, enacted in 2004, allowed military retirees with a VA disability rating of 50% of higher, and 20 or more years of military service, to receive both military retired pay and VA disability compensation at the same time. This has been commonly referred to as the “concurrent receipt” of disability pay and retired pay.
Before creation of the CRDP, military retirees were forbidden by law to receive both military retirement benefits and VA disability compensation. Parties seeking disability benefits were required to waive an equivalent portion of their military retired pay.
The CRDP program was structured to phase in the disability payments over a ten-year period. In 2013, eligible retirees will receive 99.96% of their disability pay without a corresponding waiver of military retirement. The retired servicemember would still need to waive 0.04% of their monthly retired pay, which typically amounts to a few dollars a month. This is an incremental increase over 2012, when CRDP-eligible retirees received 99.64% of their disability pay without a waiver, but as recently as 2008 retirees were still waiving almost a third of their military retired pay.
Retirees with a VA disability rating lower than 50%, however, are still not eligible for concurrent receipt. Until CRDP is extended below the 50% threshold, these retirees are still required to waive a corresponding portion of their retired pay in order to receive VA disability pay.
The military divorce lawyers at Livesay & Myers, P.C., have extensive experience with the unique issues that arise in military divorce cases, including the division of military retired pay, VA disability pay, and CRDP. From our five convenient office locations, we represent clients across Northern Virginia. Contact us to schedule a consultation today.
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