VA management agreed with recommendations to put in place a plan to monitor for packages going unsent and act to send them. Image: elYuni23/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general audit has said that individual VA employees and the department’s management are to blame for information packages that went undelivered to veterans, in some cases potentially affecting their ability to claim benefits.
The report on the Centralized Benefits Communication Management Program, under which employees bundle documents from veterans’ electronic claims folders and enclosures into virtual packages for printing and mailing. That system requires employees to act to direct more than one printing and mailing for packages with more than one recipient.
However, the IG found that largely because employees failed to do so, about 2.1 million packages created over January 2018-October 2022 were still shown as unsent as of November 2022. While the agency had a method of tracking packages that did not print properly, it did not “monitor instances when employees do not send the packages to the print vendor” because management “did not anticipate that employees would create packages but not send them.”
“Some unsent packages did not affect veterans’ benefits. For example, while some letters were meant to help veterans obtain evidence for their claims, those claims were ultimately granted without the evidence mentioned in these letters,” it said. “However, other unsent packages had the potential to affect veterans’ benefits, such as those with letters requesting evidence for claims that were ultimately denied.
In those cases, claims may have been denied without fulfilling the agency’s obligation to help the veteran obtain evidence in support of a claim, the IG said, although adding that it “could not determine what would have happened in these cases had the letters been sent.”
“Other unsent packages included required letters notifying veterans of decisions on their claims. These notices are critical to ensuring veterans understand what decisions were made and why, the effect on their benefits, and their options for seeking further review,” it said.
VA management agreed with recommendations to put in place a plan to monitor for packages going unsent and act to send them.
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