Combat-Related Special Compensation and Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay

After two months of reviewing records of veterans who are drawing Combat-Related Special Compensation and Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay, a total of $45 million in “retro pay” has gone to 31,000 recipients. Payments have averaged $1,500, with some ranging as high as $25,000. Most of the money came from the Department of Veterans Affairs, with some additional funds provided by the Defense Department, depending upon which agency was responsible for the payments. This first phase of record reviews of 140,000 military retirees was the easiest, said officials. Coming next will be an evaluation of cases with missing information to be traced. Following that will be files that must be analyzed manually.