# DFAS Offset to Retired Pay for VA Disability - Read This!!!



## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

For some number of years now DFAS has been returning the offset of Military Retired pay to the veteran. Its so slow that I figure they are hoping that as many Vets die as possible BEFORE they have to pay. 

Well apparently in Sept 06 Congress mandated that all veterans were eligible for return of their offset pay DATING FROM THE DATE THAT VA PROVIDED THE NEW DISABILITY RATING - not just from the time that VA contacted DFAS and told them about your new disability rating. In my case I received my VA rating in December 06, but the rating was effective 1 June 06. They made it mandatory that the payments of this back pay be done prior to the end of September 2007.

This past December I received my 100% disability rating. Therefore according to law DFAS now owes me all of my disability offset IMMEDIATELY - not as phased in until 2014 which is when it would be returned when my disability was 90%.

Guess what - they have started my new pay with the offset added back in as of 1 March. What they haven't done is send me the check from 1 June 06 to 1 Feb 2007 as required by the new law.

Guess what - there is a backlog of 140,000 claims from Vets who are owed back pay as of 1 December. Guess what - that doesn't even count the new claims from 1 Jan - sept 2007.

Guess what - if they have 20 people working FULL TIME on making the payments they would each have to process 1 claim every 8 1/2 minutes just to get the 140,000 done. The way I figure it a government employee can't do much more than waste 8 1/2 minutes every 8 1/2 minutes.

Guess what - My Congressman (Lamar Smith R-Texas) is really interested in my problem. Guess what - I'll probably jump to the head of the line for getting paid. Guess what - that isn't fair to all the other Vets. 

I suggested to DFAS that the most customer friendly way to handle this would be to pay the veterans immediately (I can calculate that in my sleep) and then a some point have the Comptroller for DFAS get with the VA comptroller and have them write each other checks to cover any differences in their budgets. I was told that that would be a great idea, but the Government Lawyers said no.

If you are waiting for your payments of back VA offset PM me direct and I'll give you the direct phone number of the head of the Department at DFAS who is over the payment processing. Without this phone number to give to your Congressman or for you to call yourself, all you will get from DFAS from now until April 15th is a phone hangup on their phone menu after they ask you to make your selections. You see at this time of year they are swamped with Tax info requests.


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## moopups (May 12, 2002)

What is DAFS? Spelling out the organization in the first entry is the standard way of communication, (easily followed by initial use), without that -knowledge we are clueless as to what your referring to.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

DFAS - Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Its where all active and retired military paychecks come from and are accounted for. They are in Cleveland, Ohio.

VA - Veterans Administration


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

YUP just as I thought....recieved this email this A.M. from my Congressmans office. The top paragraph before the Thank You is the response to my email which started with Subject.


"I received your email, and the information you received looks correct. DFAS will respond to your particular case hopefully by March 16 in writing. I am not sure exactly what information they will give us, but I am optimistic (I am eternally optimistic!) that the pace will pick up immediately!

Thank you,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Disability Pay Problems

I don't know if you have talked to DFAS as of yet, but they were on the phone to me this morning. They know your office has been contacted and they expeditiously provided me some information. First - the data required to perform the calculations has for myself has not been sent as yet from VA. The VA center for sending this information is their Hines (Heinz) Illinois facility. Since I received my VA disability rating and all of my back VA pay in December, I can't understand why they are holding up the info going to DFAS. 

DFAS is trying to do a manual computation for me to get me paid - how many others are in the same boat as me though with no where to turn?? 

For your information the backlog of unpaid VA offset claims at DFAS is approx 140,000 claims. By law they have until Sept 07 to make the payments. At the rate VA seems to be providing the information this number seems to be on the low side since obviously they haven't provided any of the information to DFAS for veterans who were rated in December, January, and February as well as for the future months March through Sept 07.


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

What exactly is the offset? I know my DH get his disability pay separate from his retirement check and has been since he retired in 8/2000..The amount of his disability is subtract from his retirement check...is this the offset you are talking about?


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

Yes this is the Disability offset. Each time his disability % increases he gets more and more of his offset back. Additionally each year through 2014 he gets more and more of it back as the offset is being phased out completely. They haven't been paying the back pay that is owed from the effective date of the disability increase until last September. Since September they have to pay you the amount of the offset owed from the effective date of the increased rating until the present. Typically the effective date of the increase is 6-10 months prior to their decision on the rating increase. The effective date is always the 1st of the month following the month the request for an increase in disability was submitted to VA. 

In my case for instance I requested an increase in my disability from 90% to 100% (VA has given me meds which damaged my heart) in May 2006. They recieved it in May so my efective date was 1 June 2006 and the rating was granted in December 2006. DFAS/VA got around to getting my offset changed as of 1 Feb with the payment on 1 March. To date they haven't paid me for the period 1 June 2006 - 1 Feb 2007 as required by the new law. That is what I have been complaining to my Congressman about. They now tell me that I will be paid the back pay prior to 15 March.

At 100% disabled they give you back your total offset immediately rather than waiting until 2014. If you are 100% due to unemployability then it all comes back to you by 2009 vs 2014.


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## SectorSteve (Nov 29, 2003)

This might explain it alittle better.


www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/retired-pay/retired-concurrent-receipt-overview


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

Yes explains the Offset, but not the problems Vets are having getting paid and not the latest changes to the system which mandates the payments be made from the effective date of the Disability rating increase vs the date VA notified DFAS, i.e. the date VA approved the % increase. DFAS I am sure isn't happy with having to pay me about 8 months back pay.

Same old song - Screw the Vet every chance you get.

The Walter Reed Fiasco is the same song, different verse. These guys are broken now so they are of no use.

I've been retired for 13 years now - I was supposed to die by now.


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## SectorSteve (Nov 29, 2003)

Yucca,
I know how you feel. I've been retired for 15 years and I just had my VA increased to 90%. But, I haven't had a problem with the VA or the payments. Every increase I've received has been adjusted to the effective date of increase. 
Good luck,
Steve


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

Ah Steve but you do have a problem - you just don't know it. When you went from X% to 90% you had an effective date of the increase AND you had a date that the 90% went into effect. On the VA side I'm sure all is well and already taken care of. On the DFAS side they owe you more of the VA Offset than they have paid you to date - at least according to the guys at DFAS. I will PM you the guy to get ahold of at DFAS to see how much they owe you in back offset, and when it will be paid.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

I just sent the following to Sean Hannity to see if they are interested in this story.

Sean - are you interested in a story where the Defense Finance and Accounting Service(DFAS)is dragging their feet in paying Disabled Veterans (including 100% disabled veterens) back pay that was authorized by Congress last September. There are in excess of 140,000 severely disabled veterans who are owed in excess of $400 - 500 million dollars. To date DFAS hasn't even notified these veterens that they are owed the back pay. I know about it because I was told through a clandestine source. I am owed just short of $6000.00 and have been fighting for months with DFAS with the help of Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). They keep pushing the date they will pay me back and then that date comes and they push it back again. Supposedly by the law passed by Congress they have until Sept 2007 to pay the money. Assuming 140,000 to pay and assuming they have 40 people making the calculations for the payment, they have to calculate a claim every 8 1/2 minutes to get everyone paid. We all know tht the only thing that a Government employee can do in 8 1/2 minutes is waste it.


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## ma1bob (Dec 12, 2006)

Ok, I am now confused. I was medically retired from the Navy in 1997. My retirement check was approx. $1000.00 

I then applied for my VA Disability. Which I recieved. Rated 70% with the rest at 100% due to unemployabitiy. I now get about $2800 from the VA. I get nothing from DFAS since 1997 when the VA started paying me benfits. Please explain what I am missing from this picture.

Cheers

Bob


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## Guest (Mar 24, 2007)

YuccaFlatsRanch said:


> I just sent the following to Sean Hannity to see if they are interested in this story.
> 
> Sean - are you interested in a story where the Defense Finance and Accounting Service(DFAS)is dragging their feet in paying Disabled Veterans (including 100% disabled veterens) back pay that was authorized by Congress last September. There are in excess of 140,000 severely disabled veterans who are owed in excess of $400 - 500 million dollars. To date DFAS hasn't even notified these veterens that they are owed the back pay. I know about it because I was told through a clandestine source. I am owed just short of $6000.00 and have been fighting for months with DFAS with the help of Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). They keep pushing the date they will pay me back and then that date comes and they push it back again. Supposedly by the law passed by Congress they have until Sept 2007 to pay the money. Assuming 140,000 to pay and assuming they have 40 people making the calculations for the payment, they have to calculate a claim every 8 1/2 minutes to get everyone paid. *We all know tht the only thing that a Government employee can do in 8 1/2 minutes is waste it*.


I know alot of government employed people that work hard for their money and this is not really called for. I also wonder if it will hurt or help your cause.

I was a government employee USAF for 21 years (50% disablity) and I also worked my can off.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

Bob,

I don't know how medically retired affects the offsets and payments. Did you complete 20 years and then be retired?? The best I can determine is that you are owed some or all of the pay that was offset, because at the time you were found to be disabled they were not paying both your retirement (which you earned) and your disability pay which you also earned because you are too disabled to work and it wasn't your fault (i.e. service connected). Congress rectified this in Sept 2006. Since this is all seemingly quite secret - I received a letter from DFAS yesterday via my Congressman that said they are notifying or have notified the retirees who are due money. BTW I HAVE NOT BEEN NOTIFIED EITHER. In fact I don't think they have notified anyone and don't plan to - it keeps you from asking questions like I have been. 

You MAY and I specify MAY be eligible for payment of all of the money that has been offset, or you may be eligible for the amount that was offset since Sept 2006 when a law was passed saying they couldn't continue to offset the pay, or some portion of the above - only they know the rules and they ain't telling.

Since no one is talking about this at all - not Disabled American Veterans, not anyone, there is very little information as to what is really going on and who is eligible to get what. Don't try calling DFAS as they aren't taking phone calls on the subject at all. I have some contacts within DFAS that I'm about to lose as I push this issue, but once they pay me, there isn't anything they can do to me.

They have promised that I was going to be paid 5 times - once on the 1 March payday, and I was promised I would be paid 4 times in the last 10 days. I've about had it and since I know enough at the moment to blow the whistle and get this out in the open I will, via my local paper, Drudgereport, Hannity or O'Reilly. One way or another I will get some news moving. I have already emailed Sean Hannity.

Its a really big problem as I see it. Assume the average retiree is owed half of what I am getting or approx $3000.00. Multiply the average by 140,000 claims (their number) and you get vets owed approx $420,000,000. That is a big number and trust me we aren't getting paid interest on our money.

LONELYTREE - I am sorry I stepped on your toes but from 24 years of Military Service, I found with MOST Civil Servants were concerned with protection of their jobs - everything else came second. You couldn't hire them when you needed to and couldn't fire the dead wood when you needed to. On average, they are not the most productive group of people on the planet.

Even if they have 200 people working full time on calculating payments each one would have to calculate a payment every 45 minutes to meet their deadline of 30 Sept 2007. Sounds doable?? Its taken over 3 WEEKS for them to calculate mine alone.


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

Now comes the hard question? I just recieved my retirement papers today from the Army. I was in the National Guard and had to wait until I reached 60 to retire. I am 70% unemploue and recieve 100% service coneted. What will the ofcet afect me? I don't even know what amount they are suposed to pay me if any.


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## chickenmommy (Aug 24, 2004)

Here's one for you. S.O. was medically retired in 1990. He rec'd severance pay and paid that back. He also paid his V.A. homeloan completely. He rec'd disability benefits for two years and then the V.A. said they showed record of the first payment and the last payment and nothing in between and stopped his disability checks completely. Then they told him for the fourth time at least since 1990 that they have lost his paperwork. How can they operate like that? S.O. has just given up. It isn't worth the hassle or the fight because they will just find a way to take it away again.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. I suggest you get Disabled American Veterans, your Congressman, and possibly a lawyer involved. I assume you do have evidence in the form of cancelled checks to fight their allegations.


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## chickenmommy (Aug 24, 2004)

YuccaFlatsRanch said:


> I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. I suggest you get Disabled American Veterans, your Congressman, and possibly a lawyer involved. I assume you do have evidence in the form of cancelled checks to fight their allegations.


Actually they withheld his disability to pay these things, so we have nothing.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

I still don't understand from what you have posted. A timeline with comments as to what he got and why he paid anything back, etc etc would help. Otherwise I will remain confused.


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## chickenmommy (Aug 24, 2004)

OK, when he was medically retired in 1990, they gave him a severance pay. Said he would not get any monthly checks until that severance was lived out. He was due a little over $450 a month, so it took a long time to live out $38,000. I have no idea why the severance happened, that is just the way they did it then. We had a house outside the military base at the time and were unable to keep it as neither of us could find work in the area and were unable to sell the house before foreclosure. We were able to keep it for a while-- till the severance was spent on it and living-- So they added that to the severance. He finally got a letter stating that his financial obligations had been met and he started receiving a check in 2002. Then in 2004 got another letter stating that they only had record of the first and last payment. Don't understand that since he didn't make payments, they kept his disability check as a payment. In the meantime every time he tried to check on the status of his payments, he had to gather all his paperwork again because they suddenly had no record of him again. He has a disability due to back injury rec'd during desert storm, had I not went with him to read his paperwork before he signed anything when he was discharged, he would have gotten nothing because they had his injury listed as psychosomatic. Never heard of any doctor performing surgery on a psychosomatic injury! This whole thing has been sort of a screw fest for the Army. 17 years later and he still has never been debriefed, which was supposed to be mandatory for his MOS and position.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

I seriously think you need to visit at least the Disabled American Veterans and ask for their help. They will represent your husband. By law they just can't forget about him as if he didn't exist. Get all of your paperwork together and go see them. They can also help to get a Congressional Investigation going on his case and the Army and/or VA have no choice but to answer the Congressmans questions. It may take some time, but rememeber they owe him all and any back pay that should have been paid to him. Spend it wisely!! 3 years times $405.00 per month (not including pay increases that have happened since then) amounts to around $15,000.00

So far it appears they have withheld a little over $83,000.00 from your husband. If he had $38,000 in severeance to repay, does the other $46,000 cover the amount owed on the VA home loan (I assume it was a VA home loan).

I would love to run this one for you with DAV and VA, but you are too far away. Go see your DAV rep ASAP and get it started. When your husband got out of the military was he ever rated by VA for disability?? Is he in any way more disabled now?? Those are things you need to tell DAV.


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## chickenmommy (Aug 24, 2004)

He only got a 40% disability back then. He is better than that now, I think. But who am I? Anyway, his rep in this area has apparently quit? or something as he has been told no one can do anything for him here until July when they get someone in that office. It's just pathetic down here. Try and get an appointment at the clinic. I have heard nasty stories of a waiting list that is over a year long.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

When he got out of the military they dhould have done a screen of his medical record for items for which he needed to be evaluated by VA for disability. Things like hig blood pressure, enlarged heart, hearing, PTSD, among many many others. Where in Florida do you live?? I can't for the life of me believe that the Disabled American Veterans not having an office in almost every major city in Florida. He isn't locked into one VA hospital either. DAV does not work for the Veterans Administartion in any capacity. They exist to represent the Vet against (for lack of a better word) VA. They know how things work, and who to talk to and how to word things to get them through the beaureacratic Government Red Tape (also known as VA). 

Here is a link: http://www.davfla.com/about.asp?page_id=9&n=12

I can get seen at a VA hospital in hours if I need to be. Does your husband have a regular VA Doctor - and if not - why not?? Being seen regularly is part of the documentation of his disabilities. No documentation - then no disability ratings. If he is having problems being seen then he needs to visit the patient affairs Rep at your VA hospital. Mine knows me by name - I fired 3 doctors prior to getting one who I am comfortable with.


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