VA Employee Accused Of Improperly Approving $2 Million In Claims
As a disabled veteran, you have probably had a tough time getting approved for benefits. You have probably wished the process was much easier. What if someone could just approve every claim that came in.
That is actually what one Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) worker did. For several years, a senior veterans service representative at the Philadelphia VA Regional Benefit Office blindly approved more than 85,000 veterans’ disability benefits claims. This resulted in approximately $2.2 million in improper payments.
Someone called the VA hotline to complain about the employee, which resulted in an investigation. Investigators found they were approving payments at a high volume without even opening or reading attached documents.
The federal worker’s actions led to improper payments to veterans, procedural deficiencies, and violations of regulations that could affect veterans’ benefits. The blind approvals occurred for at least a two-year period, from fiscal year 2022 through 2024. It was discovered that the employee authorized about 85,300 claims. This is about 19 times the national average, with an error rate of 84%.
As a senior veterans service representative, the employee was responsible for final review and approval of veteran benefits claims awards. This is a demanding task that requires attention to detail and thoroughness to ensure that claim information is correct and veterans receive appropriate benefits.
The employee often took as little as three minutes to make each approval. This is not realistic at all and even a director was on record stating that “it is not physically possible to do that many authorizations and perform the real functions of the job.”
However, it was common knowledge within the office that the employee was not actually working. Despite approving claims at top speed, the worker was protected by their supervisors. Managers in the regional office shielded the worker from accountability.
The employee approved 15,600 benefits decisions in just six months, from January 1, 2024, through June 30, 2024. Investigators reviewed 32 of them and found that 27 contained errors. Most of these errors were due to the employee not performing the necessary functions of their job. In one case, the worker did not even open any documents. There were numerous errors identified in these jobs, including procedural deficiencies, incorrect entitlement determinations, and not identifying benefits claimed by the veteran.
The negligence and disregard caused veterans’ disability benefits claims to be processed incorrectly, which of course led to a waste of taxpayer dollars. The full magnitude of the situation has not been assessed, but the Veterans Benefit Administration is trying to correct all errors by the end of the year.
Learn More About Veterans Benefits
While it may sound great for veterans that a worker blindly approved tens of thousands of claims, this type of action has consequences for everyone involved.
A White Plains veterans disability benefits lawyer from The Law Office of Michael Lawrence Varon can help ensure your disability claim is accurate and processed correctly. To schedule a consultation with our office, call 914-294-2145 or fill out the online form.
Source:
militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2025/09/29/va-staffer-accused-of-blindly-approving-over-85000-disability-claims/
