VA pay and severance package?

tracy2014

tracy2014

PEB Forum Regular Member
PEB Forum Veteran
My husband was honorably discharged in Nov 2011. He was NOT medically retired because the board found him "Fit" for active duty. He was an 03E at 17.7 years of service they gave him a sev package but no retirement or any other benefits.

Since 2011 we have filed claims with the VA and finally got a rating today and it says 70% service disability. The amount awarded is $0.

I have been told by other wives of veterans that this is because we have to pay his sev package back.
Since we have been out of the service my husband has not been able to get hired anywhere. We really needed this income. Can someone please tell me if there are any loop holes we don't know about or is this for real?

Thanks in advance.
Tracy
 
Maybe I rambled too much. Sorry.


Do you have to pay back Severance Pay if you start getting VA Disability a few years later?
 
Correct, you won't see VA pay until severance is paid back
 
if he got a fit finding then it should not have been a disability severance. VA should only recoup a disability severance i thought.

i am curious if even though he was found fit that the reason he was seperated early wasn't due to his disability. there may be room to disagree with the fit finding, saying it was in error, due to his decrease in performance that resulted in the seperation so close to retirement.

If he was good enough to make o3e i would think he could have made major without extenuating circumstances.
 
That is exactly what we were thinking all of this time...someone had told us that they wouldn't take it back unless it was disability severance. It really sucks to find it out 2 years later.

Yes, he was found Fit because if they would have found him Not Fit then he would have been medically retired. "Someone" with power did not want that to happen. They knew that my husband had failed 3 pft's and as soon as they found him Fit then the Navy was kicking him out for those 3 failures. Even though, the medical issues are the reason he failed those. The command made some big mistakes and they knew it made them look bad. I think he was screwed over big time. Obviously.
Yep, it's real fishy when your own legal counsel gets a visit from the xo of the base and then the next day you get a phone call with your lawyer saying "well there just isn't really anything else I can do to help you". Stink much?
 
I have been told that we CAN file for hardship and have the amount they are taking out be lowered. Can someone help me find more information about that?
 
You could challenge the finding through the Board of a Corrections of Naval Records
 
You should be able to request the debt, which the seperation repayment represents, for waiver under 38 CFR § 1.911, look at http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/1.911

I believe the form that Combat Eng linked is for hardship for specific payments, not for a waiver of debt. I believe this request would look more like a normal NOD, just a letter saying why you have a problem with the debt and asking for relief.
 
Thanks! I will take a look at that.

I am also sending a request to DFAS to reduce the amount of recoup for the sep pay. I have no idea if they will but I am going to approach every option with the hope that someone might know a way to help us.
 
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