Understanding Concurrent Receipt and Filing for CRSC

In crisis? Call the Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1. You can also text 838255 or chat online at veteranscrisisline.net. It is free, confidential, and available 24/7.

This is general education, not legal or claims advice, and not guidance for your specific claim. It cannot promise you a rating or an outcome, and no one can. For help with your own claim, see a free accredited representative (see Get free, accredited help below). Nothing here creates a representative relationship.

Current as of October 2026. Rules, forms, and figures change. Check current details at va.gov.

The best way to use this guide

The strongest position is to be your own informed advocate and to work with a free accredited representative. An accredited Veterans Service Organization, such as the DAV, VFW, American Legion, or a county or state veterans office, helps at no charge. Accredited claims agents and attorneys can help too. They can't charge for work done before VA issues its initial decision on your claim, and after that they may charge a fee within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. This guide is here so you understand your own situation and can work with them as a full partner instead of handing it over blind. If you'd rather handle this yourself, and you're comfortable doing that, the guide walks you through every step. Either way, you stay in control.

What you'll get done

The outcome: By the end of this guide you'll understand the VA waiver on your retired pay, know whether CRDP, CRSC or neither applies to you, and, if CRSC fits, file a clean, well-documented DD Form 2860 with your service branch.

This guide prepares you for the task. It doesn't and can't promise a rating, a percentage, a determination, or an amount. Your branch decides whether a condition is combat-related, and the evidence in your file decides the result.

What you need before you start

• Your most recent Retiree Account Statement, pulled from myPay.
• Your VA decision letter and your VA code sheet, which list each rated condition and its diagnostic code.
• Your DD-214 and any DD-215, and your retirement orders showing your retirement type and years of service.
• Service treatment record extracts, line-of-duty determinations, personnel and deployment records, award citations (including any Purple Heart), and any mishap or safety reports you can find.
• The name and number of a free accredited representative (DAV, VFW, American Legion, or a county or state veterans office).

When to start: Once you have a VA disability rating and you're entitled to military retired pay. You can apply for CRSC with your branch no matter how long ago you retired. Request the slow records first, because they take the longest to arrive.

Start here: the basics

By law, military retired pay is reduced by the amount of VA disability compensation you receive. That reduction is the VA waiver. Two Defense Department programs give some or all of it back. CRDP, Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay, restores retired pay for retirees with at least 20 years of service and a VA rating at or above the level the law sets. CRSC, Combat-Related Special Compensation, pays for disabilities your branch finds combat-related, and it's open to more retirees, including many medical retirees with fewer than 20 years. If you qualify for both, you get only one, and you choose which. This guide explains how the pieces fit and how to file for CRSC. Check current figures with DFAS and at va.gov.

The steps

Step 1. Pull your Retiree Account Statement and find the VA waiver line.

How. Log in to myPay and open your most recent statement. Read it from the top: gross retired pay, then the VA waiver as a minus, then any CRDP or CRSC line, then deductions, then net pay.

Done when you've found the VA waiver line and can see what it subtracts from your gross retired pay.

Step 2. Confirm what the waiver is, so you chase the right fix.

How. The waiver is how the law stops you from being paid twice for the same years. It's set up when VA tells DFAS about your award, and it should match, or nearly match, your monthly VA compensation. Put the two numbers side by side.

Do not treat the waiver as a debt or as a VA decision you can appeal. If the waiver is far larger than your VA compensation, call DFAS retired pay at 800-321-1080.

Where this is written down: 38 U.S.C. § 5304, 5305.

Done when you can explain in one sentence that the waiver moved money from one check to the other, and your two numbers line up.

Step 3. Sort your lane: CRDP, CRSC, both, or neither.

How. Check two things. Do you have 20 or more creditable years of service (or an early TERA retirement) and a VA rating at or above the CRDP level? Do any of your rated conditions trace to a Purple Heart injury, armed conflict, hazardous service, training that simulated war, or an instrumentality of war?

If you have the years and the rating but no combat-related condition, then CRDP is your program; go to Step 4. If any rated condition may be combat-related, then CRSC is in play, whatever your years of service; go to Step 5. If you have neither, then the waiver stays, and an accredited representative can confirm that.

Where this is written down: 10 U.S.C. § 1413a(c), (e); 10 U.S.C. § 1414(a), (b).

Done when you can name your lane in one sentence and know which step comes next.

Step 4. If CRDP is your path, confirm it rather than file for it.

How. CRDP has no application. DFAS starts it once VA reports a qualifying rating. On your statement, look for a CRDP line adding money back on top of the waiver.

If the CRDP line is there, then check that it changes after any rating change and set a yearly reminder to recheck. If you clearly meet the years and rating but see a waiver with no CRDP line, then call DFAS at 800-321-1080.

Done when your CRDP line is confirmed or your DFAS call is logged. If no condition is combat-related, you can stop here.

Step 5. Work each rated condition through the combat-related categories.

How. Write one line per condition: the condition, the category it fits, and the document that would prove it. The categories are a Purple Heart injury, armed conflict, hazardous service, conditions simulating war, and an instrumentality of war. What caused the condition decides the category, not the diagnosis.

Do not turn down or waive a VA benefit to protect your retired pay without talking to an accredited representative first. VA compensation is tax-free, and giving it up can cost you more than it saves.

Where this is written down: 10 U.S.C. § 1413a(e).

Done when every condition has a line, and you've separated the ones you can prove from the ones that aren't ready.

Step 6. Confirm where DD Form 2860 goes before you send anything.

How. CRSC is filed on DD Form 2860, Claim for Combat-Related Special Compensation, with your own branch's CRSC office, not with VA. Get the current form and your branch's current mailing address or online portal from your branch's CRSC page.

Do not send DD Form 2860 to VA. CRSC is a branch program, and the wrong address costs you weeks.

Done when you have the current form and your branch's confirmed submission address or portal.

Step 7. Gather the records that show the combat-related link.

How. Pull what you already have: DD-214, VA decision letters and code sheet. Then request the gaps: service treatment records, line-of-duty determinations, personnel and deployment records, award citations such as a Purple Heart citation, and mishap or safety reports. These may sit with the National Archives, your branch, or VA.

How. Ask a free accredited representative which records your branch's board tends to ask for.

Done when you've requested every hard-to-get record and pulled and labeled what you have on hand.

Step 8. Decide which conditions to claim now.

How. List the ones you can tie to a category with a document. Hold the ones you can't prove yet; you can add them later once you have the record.

Do not pad the claim with every rated condition. Conditions with no shown combat link give the board nothing to act on and slow the review of the ones you can prove.

Done when you can name the category and the proving document for every condition you plan to claim.

Step 9. Fill out and sign DD Form 2860.

How. Enter your identifying and retirement information exactly as it appears on your records. List each claimed condition with its VA diagnostic code copied from your code sheet, and mark the category for each. Keep the basis factual: what happened, when, the category, and the document. Sign and date every place the form asks.

Done when every claimed condition has a diagnostic code and a category, and the form is signed and dated.

Step 10. Build your package in the order a board reads it.

How. Put the signed form on top. Next, a one-page index listing each condition, its category, and the proving document with page numbers. Behind it, your service and rating proof, then a labeled evidence set for each condition.

Done when someone who knows nothing about your case can use the index to find the proof for any condition in under a minute.

Step 11. Submit the claim and track it on one page.

How. Send the package to your branch's CRSC office and keep a full copy in the same order. On one tracking page, log the date and method you sent it, what you sent for each condition, any case number, any request from the branch and your reply date, and the decision for each condition.

Do not pay anyone a fee or a share of your back pay to file this. Veterans Service Organizations and your branch's retiree and wounded warrior offices help at no charge. Report anyone who pressures you to pay to the VA OIG at 1-800-488-8244.

Done when the package is in and you can say at any time what you sent, when you sent it, and what the branch is waiting on.

Step 12. Answer a partial approval or a denial with the missing piece.

How. For each denied condition, read the reason the branch gave. Quote it back in a reconsideration request to your branch's CRSC office and attach the document that answers it.

If the denial names a missing link, then send that document with a reconsideration request. If you can't find the record, then ask an accredited representative about other proof, such as a unit record or a buddy statement. If reconsideration doesn't fix it, then ask about applying to your branch's Board for Correction of Military Records.

Where this is written down: 10 U.S.C. § 1552.

Done when each denied condition has a reconsideration request with new evidence, or a written plan to get that evidence.

Step 13. If the branch approves any condition, check the pay and compare.

How. An approval goes to DFAS to start CRSC pay. Watch your next statements for the CRSC line and check it against the decision. If the branch approved it but DFAS hasn't paid it, that's a DFAS question.

If you also qualify for CRDP, then compare the two after taxes (CRSC isn't taxed; CRDP is retired pay and is) and pick one during the annual open season. If you qualify only for CRSC, then confirm it's paid and recheck yearly. If your back pay was cut off at six years, then ask an accredited representative about the June 2025 Supreme Court decision in Soto v. United States.

Where this is written down: 10 U.S.C. § 1413a(g); 10 U.S.C. § 1414(d).

Done when the CRSC line is on your statement and, if both programs are open to you, you've elected the one that leaves more in your account.

Recap checklist

• Pulled my Retiree Account Statement and found the VA waiver line.
• Confirmed the waiver isn't a debt or an appealable decision, and that it matches my VA compensation.
• Sorted my lane: CRDP, CRSC, both, or neither.
• If CRDP: confirmed the CRDP line, or logged a DFAS call.
• Worked each rated condition through the combat-related categories, Purple Heart included.
• Confirmed the current DD Form 2860 and my branch's submission address or portal.
• Requested the slow records and pulled my on-hand documents.
• Chose the conditions I can prove now, and held the rest.
• Completed and signed DD Form 2860 with diagnostic codes and categories.
• Built the package in board-read order with a one-page index on top.
• Submitted the claim and set up one-page tracking.
• Answered any denial with a reconsideration and the missing document.
• Confirmed CRSC on my statement and ran the after-tax CRDP-versus-CRSC comparison.

Reminder: rules and rates change. Check any current figure at va.gov. Help from an accredited Veterans Service Organization is free. Accredited claims agents and attorneys can't charge for work done before VA issues its initial decision on your claim. After that, they may charge a fee within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. This guide prepared you for the task. The evidence in your file decides the result.

Go further

• The book: The Military Retiree's VA Guide, the full guide this one comes from. Coming soon as a PDF on this site and in Kindle and paperback on Amazon.
• Free toolkit: the worksheets that go with The Military Retiree's VA Guide. No signup.

Get free, accredited help

For anything about your own claim, talk to an accredited representative. Help from an accredited Veterans Service Organization is free. Accredited claims agents and attorneys can't charge for work done before VA issues its initial decision on your claim. After that, they may charge a fee within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. Free help is available through Veterans Service Organizations such as the DAV, VFW, and American Legion, and through county and state veterans offices.

To find one near you, visit va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative. Representation begins only when you sign VA Form 21-22 (for a Veterans Service Organization) or 21-22a (for an individual agent or attorney). With one rare exception for a single unpaid case, only accredited people can represent you before the VA, and only an accredited agent or attorney can charge you a fee. Nothing in this guide creates that relationship.

A warning about claim sharks. Anyone who offers to file your initial claim for a fee, or who guarantees you a rating or a percentage, is selling something you shouldn't buy. Accredited Veterans Service Organizations help at no charge, and accredited claims agents and attorneys may charge only after VA issues its initial decision, within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. Report predatory companies to the VA Office of Inspector General at 1-800-488-8244.

About this guide

This guide is education, not representation. It explains how part of the VA system works so you can handle your own business with confidence. It is not legal or claims advice, and reading it does not create any representative relationship between you and the author. The author is not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and nothing here is endorsed by the VA.

This guide prints no live VA dollar figures and no rating percentages on purpose, because they change. Before you make a decision based on any number, check the current figure at va.gov. No book can promise you a rating; the evidence in your file decides the result. Help from an accredited Veterans Service Officer is always free.

Details

• PDF, US Letter, 10 pages including the cover
• 18 fillable checkboxes
• Current as of October 2026
• Free companion guide to The Military Retiree's VA Guide

---

Never a cut of your claim.

About the author: J. Erickson is a service-disabled Air Force veteran. He served as a military firefighter and as a veteran service officer, where he spent years walking veterans through the same claims process he writes about now. He holds an MBA and writes plain-language guides for veterans who want to understand the system without a translator.