VA cuts off 4,200 listed dead in error

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida congressman says the Department of Veterans Affairs cut off the benefits of more 4,200 people nationwide after they were wrongly declared dead.

Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly said these people were “very much alive” and their benefits were resumed after the VA looked into their cases, which happened between 2011 and 2015.

Jolly raised the matter with the VA in November on behalf of a group of veterans in the Tampa Bay area. He told The Associated Press early Wednesday that the agency has since acknowledged mistakes in 4,200 cases in the previous five years, and that it has changed its protocols for confirming deaths.

“We simply cannot have men and women who have sacrificed for this country see their rightful benefits wrongfully terminated because the VA mistakenly declares them dead,” Jolly wrote in a statement.

Danny Pummill, the acting undersecretary for benefits at the VA, acknowledged mistakenly declaring the 4,200 veterans dead in a May 6 letter to Jolly. The agency’s computer systems don’t track the causes of each error, but Pummill wrote that they could have resulted from incorrect data provided by another agency, human error or computer problems.

Upcoming Events