You cannot be paid twice for the same days
Guard and Reserve members often read a reduced VA payment as a rating cut. Most of the time it is the annual drill pay reconciliation. 38 USC 5304 bars being paid twice for the same days, so VA withholds compensation equal to your paid training days once a year. Nothing about your rating changed, and waiving the smaller VA amount for those days is almost always the right call.
Members of the National Guard and Reserve who also receive VA disability compensation run into a rule that catches many off guard: you cannot receive both VA compensation and military pay for the same days. When you drill or attend annual training, the military pays you for those days, so VA cannot also pay compensation for them. The governing law is 38 USC 5304, the prohibition against duplication of benefits.
How the waiver actually works
You do not lose anything permanently, and you do not have to do the math during the year. Each year VA identifies the number of training days you were paid for by the military. To comply with 38 USC 5304, you waive VA compensation for that same number of days. In nearly every case the right choice is to waive the VA pay, because military training pay for those days is usually higher than the daily VA amount, and waiving the smaller benefit keeps more money in your pocket.
Example of how the waiver applies
- During the year you receive your normal monthly VA compensation and your normal drill and annual training pay.
- After the training year, VA sends a notice asking you to waive VA compensation for the number of days you were paid to train, usually around 36 to 48 days depending on your drills and annual training.
- VA then withholds that many days of compensation, typically by reducing or pausing a future month. The net effect is that you keep the higher of the two payments for the overlapping days.
What the withholding actually means
When you see a month with reduced or withheld VA compensation, it is almost always this drill pay adjustment, not a reduction in your rating. It is a one-time annual reconciliation, not a permanent change.
A note on retired pay
A related rule governs military retired pay. Most retirees must waive retired pay to receive VA compensation, with two major exceptions that restore some or all of it: Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay for those rated 50 percent or more, and Combat-Related Special Compensation administered by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Those are different programs from the drill pay waiver but flow from the same no-double-payment principle.
This is educational. It is not legal advice. A VA accredited representative or your unit pay office can help you confirm the days and the waiver.
Sources
- 38 USC 5304 (prohibition against duplication of benefits)
- 38 CFR 3.700 (overlapping benefits and waivers)
- VA, Service member benefits
- Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Combat-Related Special Compensation
When the drill pay waiver notice arrives, ask
- Does the number of training days VA lists match your paid drills and annual training for the year? Confirm against your Leave and Earnings Statements or with your unit pay office.
- Which payment was higher for those days? In nearly every case military training pay beats the daily VA amount, so waiving VA compensation keeps more money in your pocket.
- Is the reduced or paused month the one-time annual reconciliation, not a rating reduction? A real reduction requires notice and process first.
- Are you also working through retired pay? CRDP and CRSC are separate programs from the drill pay waiver and run through DFAS.
- Did you return the waiver election promptly so the withholding lands the way you chose?