If someone waives VA Compensation to return to Active Duty, can they restart it if denied entry?

SGT Garin Janssen — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 04:50:20 -0400

An acquaintance of mine has recently decided he would like to try and rejoin the Army after being medically discharged some years ago. I had given him information from AR 60-210 and AR 40-501 to start. Just so we could determine if he was even eligible to rejoin. The biggest question/concern he is having is he receives monthly VA Compensation. Seeing as I am not a recruiter I am unaware of how to answer, so I'm hoping someone may be able to provide me with some answers I can give him. He already know that in order to even go forward with trying to rejoin he needs a letter from the VA stating that he will waive his VA compensation while on AD. But is concerned that for some reason or another if MEPS decides/states he cannot rejoin. Can he restart his Compensation? he states that not getting it back would cause serious financial issues with his family and cant afford to give it up if he wont get back in. Additionally he received a severance check when he was discharged and has read somewhere that he may need to pay that back if he joins again. Is this true? Honestly any information would be much appreciated...I have searched for hours trying to find information to answer his questions but none of it is very clear.

Thanks

-Janssen

Response by SFC Marc W. made Jun 18 at 2018 8:54 AM

SFC Marc W. — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 08:54:36 -0400

So for me, I did not waive my VA comp until I had already signed a contract and had a date to report. That was the date that I used as my end date for receiving comp. The way it was treated for me was that it was on me to make sure the comp was stopped otherwise I'd owe every penny back that I got paid double for.

I cannot help with the severance in terms of facts. I can speculate however that because he is receiving VA pay, that the severance has already been paid back. The way it works is that if you get paid a severance then your first VA payments go into paying that back before you receive any VA payments. Weird to grasp, I know. If he got 10,000 in severance, and was awarded VA that paid 1,000 a month, he wouldn't receive a check the first 10 months while that severance is paid back, then on month 11, he would start getting the check, hopefully that makes sense.