Should veterans and retirees be "Triple Dipping?"

I am a retired veteran of 20yrs national guard will be receiving my pension next year, also I have been working for the loma linda veterans hospital for 15 yrs.

Less than 2 percent of all that serve make it to retirement. By then we have beat our bodies to death. Most of us are in constant pain. Most of us are sporting injuries sustained in those 20 years. So if you qualify then you qualify. If you do not qualify then you do not. Let the system weigh your issues and see what becomes of it. You should not have to be embarrassed, feel less than, or guilty because you qualify. That’s why we have laws or regulations.

You should go for it! During one's time as a soldier you may struggle financially. I have seen enlisted soldiers struggle especially those with a lot of kids!

I will not apologize, if they could fix me so I could lead a normal life, but the problem is, that's to our fine doctors back in 1990s, I'm broken, in so much pain I spend most of my time stuck in a recliner! My wife deserves more for putting up with what she dealt with. But being unemployable, I can only give her these things because of retirement of 23 yrs, SSDI and VA. If you think you got screwed my the VA, get a lawyer, lucky for me I had all the documentation and broke body! Now I've got a friend from Vietnam era, he's screwed, cancer, heart, unable to work! He can't get a decent rating from the VA.! If the VA could fix me so I could go back to work, I would gladly let me try to fix me once again. But guess what, they have tried, I am worse now!

There is a way to get both your retirement and your disablility. When I got my med discharge, since the injury qualifying me for the med retire was combat related, I qualified for Combat Related Special Compensation (CRSC). Who qualifies for it, I'm not entirely sure, meaning, I don't know if it's something you can go back and apply for it if you've been out for years. One indication that it is not is the need to apply within six years of your separation. With CRSC, you can at least "double-dip" without taking away from either of your benefits. I most definitely agree that you should be able to make more than the fraction of the disability and/or retirement you take away from your service. Thinking that you can survive and even thrive on that is ridiculous! Nobody get wealthy off of welfare and certainly no one joins the military to get rich. The ability to earn more is not only necessary, but it's utter nonsense to believe your average service member can compete with others who can earn as much as they can strive for without a glass ceiling stopping them. For having served, the benefits should be a stepping stone or a foundation in which to make it in our daily lives and then go from there.

you should only take one retirement.

I dunno. Social security is pretty hard to get. I'm rated at 90% disabled but paid at 100. Social security says I'm not disabled at all.. "shruggs" so I live off of the VA 100%. Kids, house, car. Shop at thrift stores and I'm good to go. I think people shouldn't just take take take.. you don't need 5000 to live a month, depending where you live. I understand medical issues but come on! Triple dipping? Thats greedy shit

Some of us will get four. Army retirement, VA comp, teacher retirement and at 62 Social Security :-) Concurrent pay, it's about time.

Many of us are partially disabled from our military service. I get 20% disability from the VA, which is taken out of my retirement pay. Frankly, I think I should obtain more, with several injuries from military service that were not discussed during my very limited retirement physical exam. So, the fact that I've been injured in my military service and have ongoing disability causes me (and many others) to lose some of our retiree pay. That's wrong. If we are injured during our military service we should receive BOTH our military retirement pay, which we have entirely earned, AND whatever damages we're due from our disabilities incurred during military service. One should not subtract from the other.

I am retired with a 20% disability from the v.a.. I got my loses back with crsc. Yes I guess I triple dip plus 1. Social security.