VA and Drill Pay
03-14-2016, 11:32 AM
#1
Running the House
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Joined APC: Jan 2015
Posts: 119
VA and Drill Pay
Anyone else have issues with the VA and drill pay since June of last year I have gotten 7 letters on back pay, audits and payments due in the last year and it is crazy. This weekend I got a letter telling me I owe them 8K from payments they missed in 2009 after 3 hours on the phone with 2 different offices I was told to submit a waiver. I will do that but wondering if anyone else has dealt with this.
03-14-2016, 02:32 PM
#2
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Joined APC: Apr 2013
Posts: 1,622
Originally Posted by Lurking
Anyone else have issues with the VA and drill pay since June of last year I have gotten 7 letters on back pay, audits and payments due in the last year and it is crazy. This weekend I got a letter telling me I owe them 8K from payments they missed in 2009 after 3 hours on the phone with 2 different offices I was told to submit a waiver. I will do that but wondering if anyone else has dealt with this.
This sounds like an issue you should take to your local representatives or congressmen. Just my opinion.
03-14-2016, 07:13 PM
#3
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Joined APC: May 2006
Posts: 2,889
The gig is you cannot get disability payments AND drill pay the same days, or something similar.
I was labeled 20% disabled when I retired. The stipend was small, but appreciated anyway. Several times during my 7 years in the ANG I got a note from VA saying they had overpaid me, and would therefore reduce/suspend future payments until the balance was correct. I never wrote a check back to them or had military pay docked in any way...just reduced the already small benefit to almost nothing for several months.
I was labeled 20% disabled when I retired. The stipend was small, but appreciated anyway. Several times during my 7 years in the ANG I got a note from VA saying they had overpaid me, and would therefore reduce/suspend future payments until the balance was correct. I never wrote a check back to them or had military pay docked in any way...just reduced the already small benefit to almost nothing for several months.
03-14-2016, 07:32 PM
#4
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Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Engines Turn Or People Swim
Posts: 39,389
Yes you cannot get both VA and military pay on the same day. One drill = 1 day, so two drills in one day = two days of concurrent pay.
So a theoretical reservist doing 48 drills + 12 days AT would have 60 days of concurrent receipt.
You have the choice of either waiving VA pay or waiving drill pay...I think it always works out much better for you to waive 60 days (2 months) of VA pay rather than all of your military pay. You'd probably have to be pushing 100% for the VA pay to be worth more than mil pay.
Best to be pro-active on this, and pay up every year rather than wait for them to notice and send you a bill. They should send you a letter each year.
In my case, I just allow them to offset my VA pay, so I don't get VA for 2-3 months depending on how much mil I did last year.
So a theoretical reservist doing 48 drills + 12 days AT would have 60 days of concurrent receipt.
You have the choice of either waiving VA pay or waiving drill pay...I think it always works out much better for you to waive 60 days (2 months) of VA pay rather than all of your military pay. You'd probably have to be pushing 100% for the VA pay to be worth more than mil pay.
Best to be pro-active on this, and pay up every year rather than wait for them to notice and send you a bill. They should send you a letter each year.
In my case, I just allow them to offset my VA pay, so I don't get VA for 2-3 months depending on how much mil I did last year.
03-15-2016, 07:29 AM
#5
Running the House
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Originally Posted by PurpleToolBox
Not trying to be mean but your sentences are very hard to read.
This sounds like an issue you should take to your local representatives or congressmen. Just my opinion.
This sounds like an issue you should take to your local representatives or congressmen. Just my opinion.
Sorry I had been on the phone with the VA for 4 hours at that point and was a little ****ed off and punch drunk
03-15-2016, 07:30 AM
#6
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Joined APC: Jan 2015
Posts: 119
Originally Posted by Albief15
The gig is you cannot get disability payments AND drill pay the same days, or something similar.
I was labeled 20% disabled when I retired. The stipend was small, but appreciated anyway. Several times during my 7 years in the ANG I got a note from VA saying they had overpaid me, and would therefore reduce/suspend future payments until the balance was correct. I never wrote a check back to them or had military pay docked in any way...just reduced the already small benefit to almost nothing for several months.
I was labeled 20% disabled when I retired. The stipend was small, but appreciated anyway. Several times during my 7 years in the ANG I got a note from VA saying they had overpaid me, and would therefore reduce/suspend future payments until the balance was correct. I never wrote a check back to them or had military pay docked in any way...just reduced the already small benefit to almost nothing for several months.
That is the way it has always worked for me before and it has never been 8K
03-15-2016, 07:43 AM
#7
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Joined APC: Jan 2015
Posts: 119
Originally Posted by rickair7777
Yes you cannot get both VA and military pay on the same day. One drill = 1 day, so two drills in one day = two days of concurrent pay.
So a theoretical reservist doing 48 drills + 12 days AT would have 60 days of concurrent receipt.
You have the choice of either waiving VA pay or waiving drill pay...I think it always works out much better for you to waive 60 days (2 months) of VA pay rather than all of your military pay. You'd probably have to be pushing 100% for the VA pay to be worth more than mil pay.
Best to be pro-active on this, and pay up every year rather than wait for them to notice and send you a bill. They should send you a letter each year.
In my case, I just allow them to offset my VA pay, so I don't get VA for 2-3 months depending on how much mil I did last year.
So a theoretical reservist doing 48 drills + 12 days AT would have 60 days of concurrent receipt.
You have the choice of either waiving VA pay or waiving drill pay...I think it always works out much better for you to waive 60 days (2 months) of VA pay rather than all of your military pay. You'd probably have to be pushing 100% for the VA pay to be worth more than mil pay.
Best to be pro-active on this, and pay up every year rather than wait for them to notice and send you a bill. They should send you a letter each year.
In my case, I just allow them to offset my VA pay, so I don't get VA for 2-3 months depending on how much mil I did last year.
In 08/09 I was activated for IDE and I called and reported it to them. They kept paying me and finally sent me a bill in Dec of 09 which I promptly paid (had been setting aside the money in an interest bearing account all along as I knew they would be coming for it) (Side note you can pay the VA with a credit card including AMEX so I got the interest and the CC points)
In June of 2015, I had 4K randomly dropped in my account. I called the VA and was told they had audited my pay and I was owed the 4K. Great, moving on. Since then I have received 7 drill pay status change notices recalculating my pay since 2007. I separated in 2006 and did not drill until FY 2007 and did not get VA until early 2007. The last drill status change letter I got said I owed 32 days for 2009 and 42 days for 2012 and that was all they were collecting. I figured fine 2.5 months less of VA money this year and then I get a bill from debt management for 8K.
I think my question is are they auditing everyone or am I just lucky? And, if any one else has dealt with this how did you handle it?
