wiko123- I just got off the phone with DFAS. I've called them a number of times over the month but got the usual "I can't tell you because..." response. The last time I called I was told that DFAS has 30 days (2 January) to complete the packet. I told him then why do I have the feeling I'll be calling on 5 January asking why I haven't received any information and why haven't I got paid and lo and behold that's what happened.
The first lady I spoke to told me that my retirement will be based on the 13 year YOS not the 37 YOS. I told her that on numerous web sites, both government and civilian, it says my retirement should be based on 37 YOS. she told me that's not the case and asked if I wanted to talk to someone higher than her. The second lady confirmed the 13 YOS base pay. Again, I mentioned the other websites and she told me they were wrong. I then asked if she could tell me how much I would make. She did her calculations and said it comes out to around 2000. I told her that makes no sense because if I just went in the retired reserves I could continue to collect points and get more for retirement. I also told her that as of now my retirement pay at age 60 would be 2600. I then asked how she figured it out. She said she took the pay rate for an E9 over 26 (she couldn't get the over 36 rate for some reason) multiplied by .025 and then multiplied by the 13.3 YOS. I asked what and where did you get the .025. She said that 2.5% is the multiplier. I asked if there was another way of figuring it out which would be to take the pay rate of an E9 over 36 and multiply that by the army disability % (75) which comes out to 5300. She said I could do it that way but I would have to waive the VA pay.
So bottom line is this: there are 2 ways to figure out what you will receive. first you have to figure out your pay base and if you are high 3 or final pay. I'm guessing you are high 3 because you have to have entered the service before 1980 to be eligible for final pay. If you were an E8 for the last 3 years this should be easy to figure out. So for arguments sake just say that your pay base would be what an E8 would make according to the 2014 pay chart after 21 years (4896). The first way to figure it would be to multiply the $4896 times 75%. Although you are 100% from the army, federal law says you can only be paid a maximum 75%. So this figures to $3672. The other way to figure it is to take the 4896 multiply by 2.5% (.025) and then multiply by your creditable years of service which is your total points divided by 360. I've been told that DFAS selects the one that is more beneficial to the retiree. You always have the option of changing it though.
At least this is the way it was explained to me. Keep in mind that the figure you come up with is only your military retirement. Once DFAS figures in your VA pay, the final figure may change. There's also the CRSC computation to figure in and as I've stated I have no idea how that is figured.
One last thing she said to me. Everything is done by snail mail and that it could take as long as another 30 days to see anything in the bank. So keep that in mind if if they tell you that they have 30 days to get everything in place.
I'll keep you posted if anything else pops up.
donaldjshaw93 - see above statement. 1 January has come and gone and they (DFAS) still have no idea what I'll be getting. My guess is that you were paid on time because you hadn't collected the VA portion yet. It sounded to me if the VA is paying you, then it takes longer to compute for some reason.
Everyone else - I was very lucky with the IDES process. My packet went to the MEB in late June, a decision was made late September, and my orders were cut 3 December. I had already been rated by the VA, but that didn't matter because the ratings were more than 1 year old so I had to go through all the C&Ps again. My problem was getting my packet out of my RSC. That took about 8 months.
