After receiving benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) since 2011, the 92 year-old widow of a Pearl Harbor veteran is being told she must pay more than $20,000 back.
John Edson served in both the Army and the Navy. He gave his life to the government until he passed away in 1997 at the age of 82. His widow, Florence Edson, was later informed that she may be entitled to benefits through the VA. She applied, and began receiving a check for $837 monthly in August of 2011. This was around the same time she entered into an assisted living facility.
In December of 2013, Ms. Edson’s son, Mark Edson, was asked to send supporting documentation to the VA relating to medical expenditures incurred by his mother. In response to the documentation provided, the VA sent a letter indicating that it was overpaying the war widow and that she owed the VA $23,252. In addition, any further payments were terminated.
As stated by Mark Edson in an article posted on My FOX Austin’s website: “The idea that she somehow got these monies in such a way that she should now have to pay them back is ridiculous. Much less the idea that as she lies in a nursing home unable to pay for the care she is currently receiving, somehow they are going to garnish her income to pay this debt.”
Ms. Edson’s son also notes that this horrific news is coming at a time when his ailing mother’s health continues to deteriorate.
This story is terrible on so many levels. On a basic level, it illustrates how strictly the VA interprets pension and benefits as “entitlements” in its favor. In the VA’s view, if someone (here, a war widow) received benefits to which she is ultimately not “entitled” per VA regulations, she must pay them back. It doesn’t matter if it was the VA that (possibly) made the mistake in granting them, that they were not obtained through misrepresentation, that no notice was received to alert the widow to possible error, or that she apparently hasn’t been given the opportunity to respond to the VA’s determination of overpayment.
Meanwhile, if someone who is entitled to benefits has to wait five years to receive them due to VA error and delay, they receive absolutely no interest on these back-dated benefits. Furthermore, take into account the large number of veterans who give up – or die – while waiting for the benefits to which they are entitled. The VA has “saved” a great deal of monies due to veterans in these situations, which could be applied to take care of this war window whose late husband spent his life serving this country.
Ms. Edson resides in Texas, and I understand that her son has already sought the involvement of U.S. Senator John Cornyn. If you would like to approach him with this same issue, his contact form may be accessed here.
Unfortunately, however, this is not akin to pressuring a company to take action through pressure and bad press that might hurt its business. This is a matter of swaying the VA, and if their interpretation of their regulations is that Ms. Edson is not entitled to her benefits received, public outcry might not be enough.
Still, it’s worth a try.
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I hate the VA; They failed to inform me that my 9/11 GI Bill was ending. Because of this I didn’t plan properly to complete my Masters Degree. I am one class short -I am lucky that I have the means to complete my work. I was complete with my two of my last three courses when the VA said they weren’t paying anymore based on enrollment time. They conveniently found in their favor, even though they told me I was covered until I left active duty. This is documented. They take NO responsibility for their mistakes and penalize veterans. I hate the VA.
Joe
The lack of accountability is staggering considering the individuals whose rights they are tasked to protect. There’s no recourse or consequence for the person who denies a disability claim in gross error; meanwhile, the veteran ends up waiting for an additional year because of that mistake. (For the Roanoke RO, appeals are currently two years). That being said, I do know individuals who work in the VA who truly care about what they’re doing and the veterans they’re serving
Also, I’m sorry to hear about your experience in particular. Many veterans can hold on and get help from others (because it doesn’t come from the VA), and then there are the people who face foreclosures or bankruptcy (or worse) because they spend years waiting for their benefits.
If Mrs. Edson started receiving these veterans benefits in 1997, since her honorable husband’s passing, that is 16 years! If the VA does not have better internal control over their accounting practices, then tough luck!!
If this error in payment would have been found within one – two years after the payments first started, then there might have been a reason to ask for repayment over a period of time. BUT there should be a statue-of-
limitation on this after two years, and it should be wiped off the books! IF this honorable soldier served in WWII and possibly in Korea, he completed a very honorable career for which this country is all the better for his service. My father, and four uncles served in WWII, and I served as a Medic in Vietnam. On behalf of my father and uncles who were proud to have served, and myself, I say the VA is totally in error and needs to just write this off….and God Bless to Mrs. Edson!
I believe she first started receiving the benefits in August 2011. That matches up with the $22K+ owed, considering she was getting over $837 monthly. But there should be some kind of reliance exception to the requirement to pay back benefits – if the VA makes the payments in error and there was no misrepresentation, obviously a war widow shouldn’t (literally) pay for their error. This is awful on every imaginable level.