Your retirement pay will be whichever of the following is higher:. Regardless of your total years of service, you will be able to keep your military retirement benefits such as health care and travel benefits. Unstable means likely to improve or worsen over the next five years, so that a new disability rating will be needed. While on the TDRL, you will have periodic examinations to determine if your condition has stabilized. If your disability is later found to be stable unlikely to change in severity , you will be referred back to the PEB for further evaluation.
Again, only your conditions that create unfitness to serve will be rated and compensated. While you are on TDRL, you will receive the same benefits as all military retirees.
You are eligible to be on the TDRL for only five years. At the end of five years, your case will be reevaluated and you will be permanently retired, released with severance, or released without benefits. If you are later found fit and returned to duty, your time on the TDRL will not count towards your years of service for the purposes of permanent military retirement. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site.
The attorney listings on this site are paid attorney advertising. In some states, the information on this website may be considered a lawyer referral service. For those who entered after 7 September , it is the average of the high 36 months of basic pay. For reserve members retired under 10 USC or 10 USC on the ordered duty of plus 30 days , the last 36 months of active duty days and the associated basic pay is used to determine the average.
If the members retired under 10 USC or , the average is calculated as if the member had been on active duty for the last 36 months. Consequently, disability ratings may vary between the two. The military rates only conditions determined to be physically unfitting, compensating for the loss of a military career. The VA may rate any service-connected impairment, thus compensating for the loss of civilian employability. Another difference is the term of the rating. The military's ratings are permanent upon final disposition.
VA ratings may fluctuate with time, depending upon the progress of the condition. Further, the military's disability compensation is affected by years of service and basic pay; while VA compensation is a flat amount based upon the percentage rating received. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.
A "qualified" individual with a disability is a person with a disability who satisfies the requisite skill, experience, education and other job-related requirements of the employment position, and who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the position. Employees who do not meet the definition of "qualified" are not protected by the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act.
Employees who are currently engaging in the illegal use, possession, distribution of controlled substances are specifically excluded from the definition. Individuals whose current use of alcohol prevents them from performing their job duties or whose employment, by reason of such current alcohol abuse, would constitute a direct threat to property or the safety of others, would not qualify as an individual with a disability.
NOTE: Employees who are currently participating in, or who have successfully completed, a supervised drug rehabilitation program or who have otherwise been successfully rehabilitated and no longer using drugs or alcohol are covered.
Specifically excluded from the definition of a disability are transvestitism, transsexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, other sexual behavior disorders, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, pyromania, and psychoactive substance-use disorders resulting from current illegal use of drugs.
The discharge is based instead on command determinations that the members are not qualified for further military service by reason of unsatisfactory performance or conduct. In theory, this category is used for conditions not serious enough to warrant medical discharge or retirement for a condition incurred in the line of duty. However, counselors and attorneys should be aware that conditions warranting medical discharge or retirement are sometimes wrongly handled under this category.
A number of medical conditions not considered serious enough to warrant disability proceedings may result in involuntary administrative discharge at any time. Most of these are set out in DoD The governing regulation on enlisted separations, DoD Directive Criteria for this discharge vary among the services, though all branches include psychiatric conditions called personality disorders, and most include physical problems such as airsickness or seasickness, sleepwalking, enuresis and the like.
Some services have added learning disorders and adjustment disorders to these lists. Here, too, conditions warranting medical discharge or retirement are sometimes shoehorned into this category by mis- or under-diagnosis. For some veterans, retirement benefits — such as the ability to choose between military medical care and VA medical care, family medical care, use of base commissaries and the like — may be important considerations in seeking medical retirement.
Another difference between the DoD and VA benefits arises because the military system bases disability pay on length of service. Therefore, shorter-term servicemembers usually receive a higher benefit from the VA. VA may also rate conditions that are not unfitting, for which the military will not provide disability compensation.
The military normally provides no benefits for those found medically unfit from conditions which existed prior to entry onto active duty, unless the conditions were aggravated in the military; then the services will rate and compensate for the aggravation. However, members with more than eight years of active service should receive severance pay or disability retirement pay for all pre-existing conditions as if their conditions were incurred on active duty.
Those whose illness or injury occurred during unauthorized absences AWOLs or UAs or as the result of their own misconduct or willful negligence, will be medically discharged but receive no compensation. Line of duty conditions considered less severe may receive either no compensation or a lump-sum payment from the military, leaving the servicemember free to seek compensation from the VA. Those considered more severe result in medical retirement with monthly disability pension payments and a choice of care and administration of benefits through the military or the VA, as well as other retirement benefits.
Needless to say, these determinations may be critical for members whose illness or injuries may have long-term effects on their livelihood. Severance pay is calculated at two months basic pay times their years of military service not to exceed 24 months basic pay. On discharge, these individuals can apply to the VA for medical care and disability compensation; however, the amount of money received in severance pay is deducted from compensation later received from the VA. Medical retirees in the latter category are reevaluated at month intervals for five years.
If their conditions do not change within that period, they are then transferred to the PDL. If any of the reevaluations show significant improvement, they may be discharged or rarely returned to military service; if reevaluations show stability, they may be moved to the PDL at that time.
For those who entered before that date, retired base pay is the highest basic pay they received while in the service. Disability payment is then determined from the higher of two computations: the disability rating times the retired pay base, or 2. Separate calculations are used for reservists.
Veterans may ask the VA to make its own determination about eligibility for VA benefits. Military medical determinations are given considerable weight by the VA, but the VA should consider its own evaluations and any additional evidence provided by veterans. Many medical discharge cases begin when clients come to counselors or attorneys with questions about medical problems or discharges in general. In initial counseling for those seeking any discharge, it is wise to explore the possibility of medical discharge or retirement.
Psychiatric problems, in particular, are often unmentioned. Counselors and attorneys can ask clients to read through the list of medical conditions warranting discharge or ask them generally about all of their medical problems and compare those to the medical standards.
Nothing in the regulations prevents service members from pursuing medical discharge and other discharges at the same time. Medical discharges and, for example, hardship discharges may easily be raised simultaneously. Some counselors and attorneys make an exception for conscientious objection discharge, where regulations urge commands to look for ulterior motives or other reasons the CO applicant might seek discharge. Many servicemembers who received medical treatment or had medical problems prior to enlistment were encouraged by their recruiters to lie about the conditions.
In other cases, the recruits themselves may have denied health problems to ensure enlistment. Pre-service problems may come up in discussion with military doctors or may provide important documentation for members whose medical problems are otherwise difficult to prove.
Members alleged to have concealed medical information may face administrative discharge for fraudulent enlistment or erroneous enlistment. Under current discharge regulations for the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, these discharges must be honorable, general under honorable conditions, or entry level uncharacterized ; they cannot be characterized as other than honorable. The Army regulation permits other than honorable discharges.
Occasionally servicemembers are threatened with prosecution for fraudulent enlistment; the authors of this article have never seen such a prosecution for medical concealment, but the mere threat can be intimidating. These issues should be discussed with clients, so that they are not caught unaware by threats and can make an educated decision about the possibility of discharge documents showing discharge for fraudulent enlistment.
Medical separation takes priority over most administrative discharges. For example, unsatisfactory performance or weight control discharges should be halted if medical problems are referred for disability proceedings; soldiers diagnosed with personality disorders warranting administrative discharge and with severe depression or PTSD warranting medical retirement should be medically processed.
Medical separation normally does not take priority over discharges which warrant other than honorable characterization or over disciplinary action and punitive discharge. Before deciding on a medical discharge, counselors or attorneys should inquire about pending or possible involuntary discharges, investigations or disciplinary actions. Discharges in which an other than honorable discharge may be authorized even if not recommended in the individual case generally take precedence over medical proceedings DoD Similarly, pending approved unsuspended punitive discharges or dismissals preempt medical proceedings.
DoD Counselors contacted by military members who face separation under these conditions should inquire about health concerns that may have contributed to the conduct for which they are being separated. All too often, symptoms of medical problems are viewed by commands as misconduct warranting administrative separation with an other than honorable discharge.
Medical problems may be raised as mitigation in discharge or court-martial proceedings to avoid other than honorable or punitive discharges or even to seek referral to the disability system. Such mitigation may result in retention in the service, leaving the way open for later medical discharge or retirement; or in a general or honorable discharge permitting VA medical care and benefits. Servicemembers who qualify for this examination will not be separated until the appropriate authorities, as determined by the Secretary concerned, have reviewed the results of the examination.
Even if DoD In such situations, some servicemembers may be able to fall back on DODI While this instruction does not require commands to seek an evaluation for PTSD or TBI for servicemembers, counselors can help servicemembers acquire such an evaluation through civilian channels, if necessary, and help push for referral into the disability system if they can demonstrate that their medical impairment was the cause of the conduct for which they are being separated.
Servicemembers may consult attorneys or counselors after diagnoses of their problems by military or civilian doctors. More often, medical problems have not been diagnosed by the military, servicemembers have difficulty accessing military doctors, or members feel they have been misdiagnosed by military doctors.
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