OPINION:
What defense is there for the Veterans Affairs Department to fail for 12 years to comply with a law giving veterans’ spouses the right to keep pension and disability checks their partners received in the month they died? What defense is there for the VA to either withhold the benefit or demand return of the check if sent, and to have the U.S. Treasury move to seize the money directly from accounts if the checks were already deposited or spent after they were sent out?
Well, the defense from the VA for extracting millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of widows and widowers is that it “wasn’t fully aware of the problem,” according to the Associated Press. Outrageous! Congress passed a law in 1996 that gave spouses the right to the pensions and disability checks that veterans got in the month they died, and it instructed the VA to make changes as needed to comply with the law, affecting all veterans who died after Dec. 31, 1996. But the VA never updated its automated computer systems.
Anyone who may have wrongfully been denied payments can call the VA help line at 800-827-1000 and go through the infuriating automated menu of options (there is none for “Grinch Who Stole Christmas” Complaint Department).
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Shaking down widows and widowers of veterans - in the month the veterans die, no less - is pretty low, especially from the department that is supposed to help them. We can accept that there was no conspiracy involved, but ignorance or stupidity is simply unacceptable. Will anyone be held accountable?
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