An unexplained technical error at the Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Illinois wreaked havoc in the life of a Texas man. On July 9, 2010, the disabled veteran of the first Gulf War was mistakenly declared dead. Needless to say, the news took him by surprise.

The winding road to his untimely technical demise started in 2008. The VA decided to reduce the veteran's monthly disability benefits by $2,000. His appeal took two years, but this past June, he prevailed.

But after the appeal, the checks stopped coming altogether. Knowing how long it can take to get an answer from the agency, this man started calling the hotline twice a day.

Finally, on July 12, he was informed that his benefits had been stopped because he had passed away in April.

It's easy to laugh at the absurdity of the situation -- this disabled vet standing at the counter, showing identification, being told that he'd died some three months earlier -- but the reality was frightening. As he stood there, trying to explain there'd been a mistake, he knew his prescription medications had stopped, he knew his mortgage was going unpaid -- he knew he was in financial trouble after his disability checks had been reduced, and now they had just stopped coming. As he stood there, he had a vision of himself living on the streets, another homeless veteran.

Assured the mistake had been corrected, he went home. The next day he received a condolence letter from the VA, with a demand for repayment of the benefits issued since the date of his "death."

Again, he called the hotline, day after day. The excuses and explanations piled up. Finally, a veterans' advocate convinced the VA to reinstate his benefits and the checks started coming in again.

How did the advocate do it? Rumor has it he told the VA that the vet was going to be interviewed by the local paper. The checks and retroactive payments started a couple of days later.

Source:

"Disabled Vet Wins War Over VA Blunder" (Houston Chronicle, August 25, 2010)