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VBA’s Pension and Fiduciary Service, which administers the death benefits program, assists eligible claimants with burial expenses, plot costs, and transportation costs for a veteran’s remains. To streamline claims processing for death benefits, VBA launched a system called pension automation. This automation system extracts data from claim applications and documents, such as a death certificate, and uses rules to generate decisions and notification letters for claims. Given VBA’s increased reliance on automation, the VA OIG conducted this review to determine whether VBA’s automation system is accurately processing claims for death benefits.
Based on statistical analysis of a sample of 150 claims for veterans’ death benefits completed by automation from January 5, 2023, through March 31, 2024, the OIG estimated that 83 percent of such claims contained an error, of which 2,000 claims (16 percent) resulted in about $1.9 million in underpayments to survivors. Although the automation system correctly processed most burial allowances (90 percent) and plot allowances (95 percent), the OIG team estimated that 9,800 transportation claims (79 percent) were improperly processed during the review period. The most common errors identified by the team were: the automation system prematurely denied transportation claims that should have been transferred to a claims processor to review the transportation benefit; some transportation claims were never reimbursed; and the notification letter did not provide a decision on transportation for some claims. These errors occurred because the automation system did not have rules to ensure the proper processing of transportation benefits and because of a discrepancy in VBA policy. The OIG made and the under secretary for benefits concurred with two recommendations to update VBA policy and ensure automation is consistent with the policy for processing this benefit.
Our objective was to assess the company’s efforts to provide high-quality customer service to passengers with disabilities.
We found that although the company has ongoing efforts to improve the service it provides to these customers, it faces challenges in two key areas. First, it does not have an overarching strategy with goals, metrics, and priorities to guide its efforts to improve customer service to passengers with disabilities. Second, it does not have full visibility over the quality of service it provides to passengers with disabilities because it does not regularly analyze key data that could provide insights.
Without a strategy informed by relevant data, the company may not be focusing its resources on improvement initiatives with the highest potential impact. Further, it could be exposed to unnecessary financial, reputational, and legal risks from service that does not consistently meet its standards. Given the company’s limited visibility over the service it provides to passengers with disabilities, we assessed the customer experience and identified three areas where it has opportunities to improve: (1) interactions withcustomer-facing employees, (2) communication of essential travel information, and (3) access to onboard amenities.
We recommended that the company develop an overarching strategy and analyze the data necessary to measure its service quality. It should also implement plans and processes to address challenges in the three improvement areas we identified.
VBA Did Not Take All Corrective Actions for Veterans Prematurely Denied Service Connection for Conditions That Could Be Associated with Burn Pit Exposure
In July 2022, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a report finding that Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) staff prematurely denied service connected compensation to veterans with conditions that could be associated with burn pit exposure. The OIG made seven recommendations, and VBA took corrective action on five, which the OIG closed. The two remaining recommendations were to review two datasets the OIG believed contained prematurely denied claims of veterans seeking service connection for burn pit-related conditions, correct any errors, and provide certification of completion. In May and August 2024, VBA requested closure of both open recommendations, asserting it had taken corrective actions as needed on all the claims. However, further review by the OIG of the claim population, as detailed in this management advisory memorandum, determined VBA did not take required corrective actions on at least an estimated 25 percent of veterans’ denied claims related to burn pit exposure.
Given the considerable errors identified in this second review of claims, the OIG lacks assurance that VBA has taken sufficient corrective action to address the original findings and remains concerned that, after nearly three years, veterans affected by these errors could still be missing service-connected compensation benefits to which they are entitled. Accordingly, the OIG did not concur with VBA’s requests to close recommendations 2 and 3 from the July 2022 report. These recommendations will remain open, and the OIG will continue to request quarterly updates from VBA on the progress it has made to appropriately remediate all errors and ensure corrective actions are taken for veterans’ denied claims related to burn pit exposure from the population identified by the OIG. In response to this memorandum, VBA will establish a workgroup to develop and implement a plan to correct the identified issues.
High-Income Individual Examinations Increased in Fiscal Year 2024, But Key Terms and Methodologies for Compliance With the 2022 Treasury Directive Remained Unresolved