Should veterans and retirees be "Triple Dipping?"

I google it and it appears that if you are rated 50% or higher, you can draw both a disability pension and your retirement pay. Social Security doesn't care about either. My own view is that a disability pension is given to veterans to make up for the fact that their injury prevents them from being able to work (like workman's comp). By that logic, the old rules that made you trade retirement dollars for disability dollars kind of made sense. But, Congress knew what it wanted to do when it changed the rules so if they want to give you an extra reward for getting hurt, so be it. I know that I would rather be healthy than to be injured enough to be drawing a few extra bucks from the government so I don't resent people who qualify.

I did my twenty and earned my pension. I get money from the VA for my injuries. Two different reasons; related but separate. My Doctor told me I lived a vigorous and interesting life. Now I have to pay for it. He also said if he showed my spine MRI to another doctor they would guess my age at 75- I am 50. At Ft Benning I was taught that pain is weakness leaving the body; they never said it was coming back

I just started to receive my military retirement at age 60. Just found out they take my disability away. Bullshit! These are two different things. My knees are so bad after 82nd, I am going to have to have surgery at some point. On top of that I put in 8 active and 14 reserve and now they screw me. Don't ever trust the government, they are as crooked as the gangsters they put away for years.

Yes if they are qualified, it is the law AND they earned it!

I'm a disabled vet receiving 90% (to include TBI/PTSD along with physical disabilities) and there are things that I just can not do anymore both physically and mentally... I am 54 yrs old so it is to early for me to receive any retirement pay (I believe) I've learned in the last few years that we(I) should not judge people by their cover... because you really never know what they are dealing with...

When I got out of the Navy in 1992 I was hurting for money because of a divorce and I was offered to take the special bonus to get out. When I asked the Yoeman how they came up with the amount he said it is what I put into my retirement account. Didn't everyone pay taxes and social security taxes, well guess what that is only part of it. How can you double dip from your own 401k, you can't. This is a bullshit law that kept me from getting a federal job, claiming my disability that my coreman told me to claim because I was told they would demand it all back. And guess what happened, they did and I get nothing until 2023. Homeless damn near if it wasn't for my family, I am going through some bad stuff this just sucks.

no i dont make more retired than i did serving! i dont know who said that, but thats a crock! you dont get housing allowance anymore, you dont get bah and bas anymore! so no, you dont make more retired than you do when you served! even if you did, i thank anyone that did serve deserves to! we put our lives on the line so yeah its deserved!

SSDI is based on social security taxes you paid from your wages.
Both military and civilian wages.

I did not get the opportunity to retire. I was injured at 13 years in the army. I was medically discharged and over the years things got worse for me and I ended up receiving 100% service connected but not P&T because they said my PTSD might get better. Four years ago I had a motorcycle accident that destroyed my career as a Radiological Technologist, after that I started drawing SSDI after over two years of dealing with a lawyer and the Social Security system.

One major factor I would like to point out in this is that SSDI is not a factor in VA disability in the context of this post's subject. SSDI is Social Security Disability Insurance which we have all paid premiums for if you are working a tax paying job. This should not be considered a part of a "triple dip" as it were. You paid for it, why shouldn't you use it? Do you use your car insurance when there has been an accident? Do they pay for your car if it has been totaled? SSDI is the same thing. Insurance for if you are totaled and has nothing to do with military service so this even being considered a part of triple dipping is misconceived.

Concurrent receipt is also something that was fixed not long ago and rightly so. You serve 20+ years in the military and you receive your pension. So before concurrent receipt, if you have disabilities that any other soldier, such as myself would receive a check for, you as the retiree who did a full 20 years would only receive a tax exemption for that amount of your retirement pay even though you are suffering with the same issues that other soldier is receiving compensation for. Where is the fairness in that? You did a full career and for that you aren't supposed to receive the same compensation for disabilities that other soldiers are getting paid for? That concept is also ludicrous, which is why concurrent receipt came into being.

My apologies for the length of my reply but this issue is very close to me as I have several friends and my father who were getting screwed, in my opinion, before concurrent receipt.

I do not feel there is such a thing as triple dipping. There is getting what you have paid for, sacrificed for, and put in your time for. Service members provide much more than the normal clock punching masses. They deserve everything they get.

Is this really an issue? I mean you have to be pretty knowledgeable and/or really banged up to work the system like that. If that bad, im sure the vast majority of the time its justified. I got my number punched on my last tour in Afghanistan. Army medically retired me at 26 years at 60%. VA gave me 90%, but of course while service connected said it wasnt combat related...so i only get my VA, and the balance of retirement afterward. Only plus is 75% of my "retirement" is tax free. I dont push it because despite the nagging back and knee pain i work and its not worth the effort fighting. Also, theres a pretty big chunk of politicians and citizens that seem to care more about illegals and "refugees" more than us and pushing to set them up. So if a handful of service people are getting over...screw it