CRSC Claim Guide: Maximize Your Military Retirement Benefits

Filing for Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) gives military retirees the opportunity to collect their military retirement pay in addition to disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The claim compensates for the reduction of the retirement benefit that was offered to the retiree at the time of receiving the VA compensation. Retirees can receive either partial or full amounts of their retirement pay and VA compensation after the approval of a successful CRSC claim. Appropriate calculations need to be made and filled out correctly in the CRSC form.

Step 1

Consult your parent military branch to find out whether you are eligible to receive CRSC. You must have received VA compensation for combat-related disabilities previously, meaning that you must have been compensated for any disabilities you suffered from during field trading or in combat for you to qualify as an eligible CRSC applicant.

Step 2

Calculate your percentages of disability are and deduct them each from 100 percent. For example, if you have one disability percentage that is 40 percent, 100 percent minus 40 percent gives you 60 percent, which is the percentage of remaining efficiencies. You can obtain your personal disability percentages by consulting your previous VA training resources.

Step 3

Multiply the remaining efficiencies together. In some cases, disabilities will cover other aspects of your health to be factored in with addition to your disabilities covered exclusively by the part of the body that represents the efficiency percentage. This is why several retirees receive more than just one disability rating. As an example, your efficiency equation might look like this: [100 percent – 50 percent = 50 percent][100 percent – 40 percent = 60 percent][100 percent – 30 percent = 70 percent].

Step 4

Deduct the result from the previous step from 100 percent. In the previous example, the result is: 0.5 x 0.6 x 0.7 = 0.21, or 21 percent. Subtract 21 percent from 100 percent, which will give you 79 percent. This represents the combined disability, which will determine the amount of CRSC you will be entitled to receiving in accordance with the Pentagon's Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Percentages will be rounded up to the nearest tenth, which in this example would be 80 percent from 79 percent.

Step 5

Subtract your retirement pay based on your number of years in service from your disability retirement compensation. Use the formula: (VA * CDR) – (VA – RP) where VA is the disability retirement compensation, CDR is the combined disability rating and RP is the retirement pay. This will give you the CRSC pay you are entitled to according to your own personal situation.

Step 6

Fill out the CRSC form with the appropriate data (see Resources). Submit the application through your parent military service branch to be processed.