« on: August 25, 2024, 10:26:57 pm »
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/government-clawed-back-25-billion-veterans-got-leave-military-data-sho-rcna167436The Department of Veterans Affairs has clawed back billions of dollars that countless veterans were given as incentive to leave the military, including when it needed to downsize, according to new data obtained by NBC News.
Disabled veterans have been told in the last 12 fiscal years to return nearly $3 billion in special separation pay — lump-sum incentives that were offered when the U.S. had to reduce its active-duty force or release slightly injured service members, the data shows.
Since fiscal year 2013, the earliest year for which the VA shared data, about 122,000 veterans have returned more than $2.5 billion so far, with about $364 million still left to be recouped, according to the VA.
“It felt like I would never see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Damon Bird, who struggled to repay the roughly $74,000 incentive he received to leave the Army in 2015.
The VA said it is legally bound to recover separation payouts from veterans before those eligible can begin receiving disability compensation, due to a little-known federal law that prohibits them from receiving both, NBC News previously reported.
The obscure law — of which about a dozen military law and veterans policy experts said they did not have enough knowledge to weigh in on — has thrown many disabled veterans into financial and emotional despair since Congress authorized it in 1949.
EXCERPT
Pretty much a travesty of law...the VA doesn't care. It's just a mindless bureaucracy. And the military wonders why recruitment is now a big problem? Not only do active duty service members get screwed three ways from Sunday but then they also get it again from the VA after getting their DD214s.
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