WASHINGTON — Surviving spouses of war veterans have been wrongfully denied up to millions of dollars in government benefits in the past 12 years because of computer glitches that often resulted in money being seized from the elderly survivors’ bank accounts.
The Veterans Affairs Department said Saturday that it wasn’t fully aware of the problem. It pledged to work quickly to give back the pension and disability checks — ranging from $100 to more than $2,500 — that hundreds of thousands of widows or widowers should have received during the month of their spouse’s death.
“This problem must be fixed,” said VA Secretary James Peake.
The department indicated in an “action plan” provided to AP that up to millions of dollars in back payments could be given to the surviving spouses sometime after February, once it can identify them.
Survivors who think they were wrongfully denied payments also can call the VA help line at 800-827-1000.
Congress passed a law in 1996 giving veterans’ spouses the right to keep their partners’ final month of benefits. It instructed the VA to make changes as needed to comply with the law, which took effect for spouses of veterans who died after Dec. 31, 1996.
But the VA never updated its automated computer systems, which send out checks and notification letters. As a result, widows or widowers were either denied the final month of payment or asked to send the checks back. In many cases, the U.S. Treasury moved to seize the money directly from their accounts.
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee estimates that 50,000 surviving spouses each year since 1996 could be affected, based on VA numbers indicating more than 100,000 veterans die each year — some of whom may have been single or divorced — while receiving VA benefits.
