Another CRDP question...

B

Bhemm

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
Sorry for asking if this has already been answered somewhere else, I'm just not finding it anywhere...

My question is, with the Air Force currently downsizing, they are allowing early retirement under TERA at 15 years of service or greater. I am ineligible to apply for TERA because I am currently going through the med board process already. The problem I have is, as I understand it, if I were to apply for TERA and get approved for early retirement, then get rated at 50% or more disability through the VA, I would qualify for CRDP. However, because I am ineligible to apply for TERA, and will only be at 15 years and some odd months of service when I am medically retired, I will not receive CRDP. Can anyone tell me if that is correct?

Here is what the DFAS website says:

EligibilityYou must be eligible for retired pay to qualify for CRDP. If you were placed on a disability retirement, but would be eligible for military retired pay in the absence of the disability, you may be entitled to receive CRDP.
Under these rules, you may be entitled to CRDP if…
  • you are a regular retiree with a VA disability rating of 50 percent or greater.

  • you are a reserve retiree with 20 qualifying years of service, who has a VA disability rating of 50 percent or greater and who has reached retirement age. (In most cases the retirement age for reservists is 60, but certain reserve retirees may be eligible before they turn 60. If you are a member of the Ready Reserve, your retirement age can be reduced below age 60 by three months for each 90 days of active service you have performed during a fiscal year.)

  • you are retired under Temporary Early Retirement Act (TERA) and have a VA disability rating of 50 percent or greater.

  • you are a disability retiree who earned entitlement to retired pay under any provision of law other than solely by disability, and you have a VA disability rating of 50 percent or greater. You might become eligible for CRDP at the time you would have become eligible for retired pay.
Can I argue that because the AF is currently allowing retirement under TERA, and I am only ineligible because I am already going through the MEB process, I earned entitlement to retired pay under the provision of TERA and therefore become elegible in another five years when I would have hit 20?

Does anyone know much about this? CRDP is a boat load of extra money and I don't understand why someone like me being medically retired at 15 years is ineligible for it when my peers are retiring at 15 years of their own free will, not being force retired medically, and now they get more money than I do...

Sorry for the rant, it's just something I don't understand and am looking for some guidance on...any information would be greatly appreciated!
 
Not everyone qualifies for TERA, since you do not currently qualify, do not think of it as a benefit that you are missing out on.
 
Thanks for the input, I really do appreciate everyone's advice on a lot of different threads on this site, but that is honestly a terrible response. CRDP would be the difference in making my mortgage or losing my house, it is literally that much. So to tell me to not think of it as a benefit I'm missing out on is clearly not the response I'm looking for.

Does anyone have anything informed to say about CRDP for someone in my situation?
 
You are not in the position to received a temporary early retirement therefore you are not eligible to qualify for CRDP. It is what it is. Focus on the problem and possible solutions to the problem.


You state the problem is not being able to comfortably make a mortgage payment.

I am also not in the position of receiving CRDP, however I was in the position of potentially not being able to make mortgage payments once I am medically retired.

What I did was contact my mortgage company and inform them of my imminent medical retirement and loss of income.

My mortgage company submitted me for a home loan modification. In my particular circumstance they did what was called a shared modification, reduced my interest rate from 5% variable to 2% fixed. They also reduced my principle from $310,000 to $157,000.

The net result was my mortgage went down from $2200 per month to $675.
 
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My question is, with the Air Force currently downsizing, they are allowing early retirement under TERA at 15 years of service or greater. I am ineligible to apply for TERA because I am currently going through the med board process already. The problem I have is, as I understand it, if I were to apply for TERA and get approved for early retirement, then get rated at 50% or more disability through the VA, I would qualify for CRDP. However, because I am ineligible to apply for TERA, and will only be at 15 years and some odd months of service when I am medically retired, I will not receive CRDP. Can anyone tell me if that is correct?

Bhemm, from what I have read on this site, you are correct.
 
Indeed, by law, a disability retiree needs 20 years of service to qualify for CRDP but a length of service retiree has no such requirement. It is a terrible inequity.

Mike
 
maparker said:
Indeed, by law, a disability retiree needs 20 years of service to qualify for CRDP but a length of service retiree has no such requirement. It is a terrible inequity.

Mike
Click to expand...

YOU'RE NOT A-KIDDING MAPARKER!

nwlivewire
 
maparker said:
Indeed, by law, a disability retiree needs 20 years of service to qualify for CRDP but a length of service retiree has no such requirement. It is a terrible inequity.

Mike
Click to expand...
Mike, thank you, that was more along the lines of a response I was looking for. Of course it definitely isn't the answer I want to hear. So do you by chance see them doing anything to correct this in the future? I just don't see how it's fair that I would get CRDP if I retired under TERA of my own free will, but will not get it after being medically retired due to an injury to my spine that I sustained during training in the military. It truly isn't fair!
 
Medical retirement is not a length of service retirement. It is compensation in lieu of your loss of a career as a servicemember. The LOS is earned, by completing 20 years of active duty service, or in some cases such as TERA less than 20.

The current regulations are not going to allow you to get concurrent receipt, however you will be compensated your your loss of a military career.

Like I stated earlier, focus on the problem and not the perceived inequality of being robbed out of a temporary early retirement that you do not qualify for.

Had you never received the injury to your spine while training for the military, you may have been able to apply for TERA, if you were granted TERA, you still would not be getting concurrent receipt because you would not be disabled.
 
gsfowler said:
Medical retirement is not a length of service retirement. It is compensation in lieu of your loss of a career as a servicemember. The LOS is earned, by completing 20 years of active duty service, or in some cases such as TERA less than 20.

The current regulations are not going to allow you to get concurrent receipt, however you will be compensated your your loss of a military career.

Like I stated earlier, focus on the problem and not the perceived inequality of being robbed out of a temporary early retirement that you do not qualify for.

Had you never received the injury to your spine while training for the military, you may have been able to apply for TERA, if you were granted TERA, you still would not be getting concurrent receipt because you would not be disabled.
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Thanks GS, but I've heard enough of your opinion on it, that's why I responded to mike and not to you. But I do appreciate you trying your hardest to force your opinion on me.
 
Bhemm said:
Mike, thank you, that was more along the lines of a response I was looking for. Of course it definitely isn't the answer I want to hear. So do you by chance see them doing anything to correct this in the future? I just don't see how it's fair that I would get CRDP if I retired under TERA of my own free will, but will not get it after being medically retired due to an injury to my spine that I sustained during training in the military. It truly isn't fair!
Click to expand...
There are bills in Congress to correct this inequity but I don't believe that they have moved forward.

Here is a link for one of those bills in the House: http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/303

The Senate has a similar one as well.

Take care and good luck to you.
 
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