VA tells Marine vet to pay back over $100,000

[Elderberry]

American Military News by  Timothy Frudd  November 23, 2023

The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) recently informed a Marine veteran from Sarasota County, Florida, that he would be required to pay back over $100,000 that he received in payments from the department due to the veteran collecting Social Security during the same time period he was receiving pension payments from the VA.

71-year-old Patrick McFeely, a Marine veteran, told 10 Tampa Bay WTSP he recently received a letter from the VA, stating, “Your entitlement to compensation and pension benefits has changed. As a result, you were paid $108,094 more than you’re entitled.”

10 Tampa Bay WTSP reported that the VA will reportedly withhold McFeely’s monthly pension funds in order to recover the $108,094 in overpaid funds.

“My partner passed away and so I decided to move down here,” McFeely told the outlet. “And I’ve been loving it down here.”

The Marine veteran said that between Social Security and VA payments he has been receiving roughly $2,400 a month, which he indicated was just enough to live on.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1726776188763345402

More: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/11/video-va-tells-marine-vet-to-pay-back-over-100000/

[SZonian]

I'm going to wait a bit to comment as I believe there's more to this story.

[Elderberry]

VA Suspends Debt Collection from Veterans Whom It Mistakenly Overpaid Due to Data Errors

Military.com By Patricia Kime 7 Nov 2023

The Department of Veterans Affairs has suspended debt collections related to overpayments of pensions to low-income veterans or their survivors after the agency found it had mistakenly paid too much, in some cases, over a period of many years, department officials announced Friday.

The VA provides pensions to some veterans or survivors based on self-reported income that is later verified by the department, using data reported from outside sources such as the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies.

But between 2011 and 2022, as a result of errors in comparison data, VA officials were unable to "reliably verify" the self-reported income of these pensioners. When verification resumed in July 2022, nearly 10,000 beneficiaries were found to have higher income levels than they reported.

According to the department, this "resulted in VA pension overpayments which -- in some cases -- spanned many years.”

In the process of reviewing the pension verification process, the VA also found that roughly 30,000 more veterans and survivors, which it described as elderly and low income, may owe the department money as a result of pension debts.

"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," officials said in a statement Friday.

More: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/11/07/va-suspends-debt-collection-veterans-whom-it-mistakenly-overpaid-due-data-errors.html