Live Vet Declared Dead

[Berta]

http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfMAY08/nf053108-7.htm

what gets me is that they tried to take his money right away from his bank account but another story at Watchdog today shows some NSC vet-who never declared his income is up for federal prosecution for fraud but it took VA years to catch him.

[Wings]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG)

conducted an audit of the Veterans Benefits Administration’s (VBA’s) current procedures

to terminate beneficiary compensation and pension (C&P) benefits based on information

about veterans’ death received from the Social Security Administration (SSA). The

purpose of the audit was to: evaluate the effectiveness of VBA’s efforts to timely

terminate C&P benefits, based on information received from SSA; determine if

vulnerabilities existed in the current requirements for matching SSA death information

with VA C&P files; and evaluate the effectiveness of internal VA mechanisms in

reporting beneficiary deaths to VA regional offices.

2. We found that VBA needs to develop and implement a more effective method to

identify deceased beneficiaries and timely terminate their C&P benefits. Our audit

showed that, of a sample of 281 veterans reported as deceased by SSA, only 156

were, in fact, deceased. Further, we found that the C&P benefit awards of 42 out of 156

deceased claimants were: (1) still running; (2) had incorrect termination dates; or (3) had

incorrect

suspense dates. Overpayments in these 42 cases totaled $339,977. Based on these

results, we estimate that approximately $3.96 million in erroneous payments were made

throughout VBA.

http://www.va.gov/oig/52/reports/1998/8R4-B01-069.PDF

[Pete53]

Unfortunately the VA is much more timely in stopping as opposed to granting benefits

[william n]

at the start of my claims process the St. Pete RO informed me they received my claim for death benefits..???? i raced right down there and had to set them straight..whew! william n

[Wings]

at the start of my claims process the St. Pete RO informed me they received my claim for death benefits..???? i raced right down there and had to set them straight..whew! william n

Dead men don't file claims LOL!!!

[free_spirit_etc]

Yep. When my husband died - all it took was a phone call reporting his death to stop the payment. No evidence of death is needed to stop the payment.

I guess if someone reports you dead - they will stop your payment - and then you have to PROVE you are alive to get it back.

The VA stopped my husband's payments on a phone call alone.

But even though I sent in the wedding license and the death certificate, which lists me as his widow - they told me there was NO evidence in the file to show I was his widow to stop them from reclaiming the funds.

Free

Unfortunately the VA is much more timely in stopping as opposed to granting benefits

[john999]

Hey, the VA can do it either way. They can bring you back from the dead, or kill you off depending on the computer program they use.