VA does it again…oddly
We’re all familiar with the most common VA complaint about money – that a legitimate claim was rejected. Or how the government, so slow to react or pay when they should, are speed-of-light collection bulldogs when you owe them. Me, I have a whole file of letters from the IRS due to them misallocating an advance payment – despite sending them copies of the check showing they received it (and allocated it to the wrong account), every two months I get a letter saying “we need another 60 days to investigate this”. Been going on years now. So slow to give, quick to take back, is the norm.
This is a new one: in a screw-up dating back to 2011, VA says they found 9,900 recipients who were being overpaid due to discrepancies in their self-reported income levels. (So far, this sounds like their problem, right?)
But that work also uncovered about 30,000 additional beneficiaries who may have pension debts as well. VA officials are still sorting through their records to see how many individuals were overpaid.
“Many of these veterans and survivors are elderly, and all are low-income, so these debts represent a significant hardship,” the department’s statement said. “Recognizing the hardship and distress that these pension debts may cause, VA has paused the collection of all established pension debts and the establishment of new pension debts while we determine the path forward.”
Note that no one is saying anything about whose fault this is – which probably means it is VA’s.
Officials plan on contacting the veterans and survivors in coming weeks to explain the situation and “provide as much pension debt relief as possible.” Leaders also promised “a review to understand why the data discrepancies occurred and why it took so long to address.”
The situation echoes problems uncovered by VA staffers in August and September. About 90,000 veterans who filed disability claims through the department’s online portals, attempted to use the online systems to add dependents to their existing claims, or filed appeals applications had their cases lost in VA’s computer systems.
Some of those problems also dated back to 2011. In the wake of those discoveries, VA leadership appeared before congressional committees and promised system-wide improvements to ensure that veterans’ cases will not be lost or ignored in the future.
so this is what, 12 years later? Sigh… Makes you wonder at the scope of the mess if VA did not immediately shift into rabid leech mode.
yet another tip o’the hat to Jeff LPH.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Veterans Issues
What happened to do your job right the FIRST time so you don’t have to do it again? We have plenty of money to give away to foreign countries and illegals maybe we should take that money back? Another reason why I don’t use any VA services!
Waiting on the Judge for Grand Jury Duty. Got a hankering for a ham sammich!
Best to ya, Gun Bunny.
And as someone commented elsewhere, “Jury Nullification”.
Tanks!, Tox. weren’t bad a’tall today. Solid cases and since the Grand Jury doesn’t assign guilt or innocence it zipped right along. Still no ham sammich, tho I did ask the DA if any would be presented. He almost hurt himself trying not to laff out loud. Afterwards I did have some of the others ask me what I meant about a ham sammich. Got me some chuckles all around when I ‘splained it to them.
We did have one Juror that we wanted to nullify. An entitled female of a certain demographic that would be a hung jury lawer’s wet dream. Even the other females of that demographic were getting disgusted with her. My local Sheriff’s Dprt is very professional and bring solid cases to the DA. The DA’s Office is not like the next county over and does not practice the catch and release policies that have become the norm of late. Break the law or do teh stoopid here and you.will.go.to.jail. I know the High Sheriff and many of the Deputies, along with State Troopers personally. Good group of guys, one and all.
Most of our crime comes from the Interstate or the trash that spills over from the surrounding areas of little big towns. What few bad guys we have here go to the next jurisdiction to do their nefarious activities, knowing that if they do get caught, it’s catch and release. Our deputies do serve a lot of “wanted by someone else” warrants and “hold for other” lock ups.
If the VA, and other DotGov organizations were as efficient and corrupt free as my little AO, we wouldn’t be seeing articles like this one.
The VA and pork products. They just seem to go together.
No overpayment ever found to illegals
Of course… easy to not find for what bureaucrats don’t want to look.
I used all of my GI Bill money but one day of benefits. Oh wait, that’s what the VA said. The fact is, I used every penny of it but the VA insisted I still had one day. Because it took them two years to sort this out, I wound up incurring a three year service obligation to transfer my new GI Bill benefits to my daughter. (Truthfully I’d have stayed in anyway because I’m running this out to the bitter end, but seriously, how many times do I have to submit the same proof?)
Da VA… f*ckin’ motherf*ckers…
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1719748343000379674?s=46&t=cOGVshVfvDbjXplpHtTrRw
P.s. Illegal aliens… er, “migrants”… get scads o’ Free Sh*t they don’t appreciate, but our folk get jerked-around.
I’ll just stick this right here…’splains a lot of what the problem is…
What problem, comrade?!
The old adage “It takes twice as long to do it wrong, than it takes to do it right the first time” applies here.
Imagine how much money would be saved, if the VA did their job right, and didn’t have to pay people to audit every damn thing they did!
Reminds me of OPM amd my FERS disability. Every so many years I had to prove I was still disabled. Even though the Air Force and the VA rated me 100% Permanently and Totally disabled.
Then one year, I get my letter from OPM and go through the motions amd hear nothing back from them. You have so long to get the supporting documents and your doctor’s signature, or they’ll stop your FERS disabilities pay. But this time I didn’t hear anything back saying you’re good to go or there is a problem.
So I tried calling, left a message, then later the mail box is full. Then I read a statement online that the office isn’t manned anymore, WTF, I burn off a Congressional Complaint. In it I mention the fact that my condition is static at best, and that the Grim Reaper is waiting just around the corner for me, and yet I have to keep doing this BS. That I’m sure there are many more in the same boat. Just code us in the system as permanently broken and leave us alone.
A few months later I received a letter that I’ve been coded in the system and will no longer have to certify I’m still broken.
How much money was being wasted, by someone checking to see if people who will never get better, were still disabled.
My dad who proofread my letter, said using terms like broken, grim reaper, in my complaint made light of the situation. Told him I was making a statement to the Congress Critters and OPM Idiots about how stupid the process was.
Mike
USAF Retired
Agreed, Mike. In another vein, the VA in Battle Creek, Mi had a female who masqueraded as an audiologist. She denied anyone who was unlucky enough to have her do your claim. When I went through the process and told my VSO I’d been denied on my hearing claim, his words were, “And, I can tell you who you saw and who made sure you got denied”. He said she was infamous for her refusal to accept any claim of hearing loss.