Audit of Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program Subsistence Allowance Payments

The OIG examined whether the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), in its management of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program, ensured that accurate and timely subsistence allowance payments were made to eligible veterans. Veterans participating in the VR&E program receive a monthly subsistence allowance while they attend educational and training programs. The OIG found VR&E subsistence allowance payments were generally accurate and timely. In a sample of 120 subsistence allowance payments reviewed from November 2016, the OIG identified only four errors of overpayments and underpayments at two of the four VA regional offices the OIG visited. The four errors stemmed from a failure to update files and constituted a 3.3 percent incidence of error. The cumulative monetary impact to VA was $12,532 for the duration of the errors for the four cases involved. In March 2017, VR&E conducted refresher training for field employees, which partially focused on updating dependent information—the cause of three of the four errors. The OIG identified no significant issues of timeliness with respect to the initial payment. The OIG ensured the first subsistence allowance payment occurred in the month that followed the education/training start date. When this was a veteran’s first-time award, the OIG reviewed the timeliness of the award as well as how promptly the school/training facility was notified of the veteran’s authorization to attend following the approved written rehabilitation plan. The OIG advised the applicable VA regional offices’ management to review and correct the errors it had identified during site visits. Because of the relatively small monetary impact reflected in the errors identified, the OIG curtailed the scope of this audit and made no recommendations. The Executive in Charge for VBA concurred with the findings and provided no comments to the report.