1.  Separation pay is intended to assist members who are involuntarily separated in returning to civilian life.  It is intended to encourage the pursuit of a military career through the assurance that those unable to remain on active duty until eligible for retired or retainer pay can count on compensation to ease their reentry into civilian life.  Separation pay will be paid to members involuntarily separated from active service and to those not accepted for an additional tour of active duty for which they volunteered.

2.  To qualify for involuntary separation pay, each Marine must have been on active duty before 30 September 1990, or after 29 November 1993, have more than 6 years of active service and be on a second or subsequent contract (to include prior service with another service).

3.  A Marine who satisfies the basic reenlistment prerequisites and will be denied further service, will be evaluated for the level of separation pay based on the following checklist. A Marine must satisfy all the conditions (the yes block must be checked) in order to qualify for full separation pay.  If, for any reason, a no block is checked, the maximum entitlement a Marine may receive is half separation pay.

4.  Marines reaching their EAS who are drug or alcohol abuse rehabilitation failures will receive only half separation pay.

5.  A sergeant who elects voluntary discharge under section 6412 of MCO P1900.16D (not selected for promotion to staff sergeant) shall be treated as an involuntary separation for the purpose of entitlement to separation pay.

6.  When applying the below criteria, the evaluation will be based on the entire length of the present enlistment period or 5 years whichever is greater.
 

YES     NO

___      ___    Pass the PFT. A Marine will not be considered a PFT failure if he or she has a valid medical excuse.

___      ___    Meets military appearance and height/weight standards.

___      ___    Does not have an incident involving confirmed use, possession, or distribution of an illegal drug.

___      ___    Have no known dependency or hardship that is not temporary in nature and that causes the Marine to be
                        nondeployable or not available for world wide assignment at any time.

___      ___    Have no known convictions by civil authorities (foreign or domestic), or action taken which is tantamount to a
                        finding of guilty of an offense for which the maximum penalty under the UCMJ is confinement for 6 months or
                        more and/or a fine of $500 or more.

___      ___    Have no more than 2 NJP's.

___      ___    Have no courts-martial convictions.

___      ___    Performance record during the current enlistment must demonstrate high standards of leadership, professional
                        competence, and personal behavior required to maintain the prestige and quality standards of the Marine Corps.
                        A Marine must satisfy all of the following criteria in order to be considered for full separation pay.  Use the
                        following criteria to determine/judge whether a Marine's record is satisfactory:

                            - does not have fitness reports which contain section B or C marks/comments or numerous page 11's indicating a
                              trend of substandard performance.

                            - does not have an incident(s) which reflects discredit on the Marine Corps.

                            - has not been placed on a formal weight control program more than 2 times.

                            - has not failed the PFT more than twice without valid medical excuse during the entire enlistment period.

                            - has no more than 2 separate incidents of financial irresponsibility.

                            - does not have any incident of personal irresponsibility to include abuse of family members.

                            - does not have more than one incident of irresponsible alcohol abuse.
 
7. No Entitlement To Separation Pay

    1.  A Marine's separation is a voluntary action and the Marine has not applied for further service.

    2.  Marine is a conscientious objector. To be classified as a conscientious objector, the Marine must voluntarily request such action. To accept conscientious objector status, the Marine must be willing to accept that he or she will not be allowed to
reenlist.  As such, we do not consider a subsequent denial of reenlistment an involuntary separation and therefore there is no entitlement to separation pay.

    3.  Marine requests discharge as a sole surviving son or daughter.

    4.  Marine refuses orders, i.e., refuses to extend/reenlist to satisfy obligated service requirements for PCSO/UDP.

    5.  Marine refuses to carry out assigned tour of duty; actions do not warrant consideration for reenlistment; and therefore, denial of a request for additional service is not considered an involuntary separation.

    6.  Marine is separated for misconduct or for other punitive reasons established in the MARCORSEPMAN and the characterization of service of Other Than Honorable (OTH) or more adverse.

    7.  Marines not on active duty before 30 September, 1990, or after 29 November, 1993, in compliance with chapter 58, Title 10, U.S. Code.

8.  Computation of Pay

    1.  Full - 10% of 12 months basic pay times amount of years and months of active service.  (Portion of months are not used, e.g., 7 yrs, 5 mos, 28 days equates to 7 yrs and 5 mos.)

    2.  Half - Half of the above formula.
 

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