Veterans' claim program under Pentagon review

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio recently wrote Teresa McKay, director of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service expressing his concern over a veterans' claim program where millions of dollars in payment errors allegedly occurred, according to the Associated Press.

Tom LaRock, a spokesman for the Pentagon financing office said McKay "has expressed her commitment to ensure that the veterans receive the benefits they are due. If mistakes were made we will take appropriate steps to correct them."

Kucinich's office has calculated that close to 2,000 disabled vets were wrongly denied payments in a program extending benefits for retired vets whose disabilities were related to military service or combat.

He also mentioned overpayment and underpayment inaccuracies for an additional 2,500 vets receiving benefits in excess of $2,500.

Kucinich said the cost of the errors in the VA Retro program totaled around $12 million and requested McKay recalculate the claims in the program.

The article explains action currently being taken:

Kucinich blamed the errors on a weakening of quality control checks prompted by a rush to shrink a backlog of unprocessed claims.

LaRock said his office started a review of the program after the House Oversight subcommittee on domestic policy that Kucinich chairs held hearings on the issue last July. He said they have reprocessed about 10 percent of the 133,000 claims originally considered eligible for the program, and hoped to complete the review by early spring of next year.

-Dippold

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