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One Philadelphia employee, Ryan Cease, whose job for a time included correcting duplicate records, said it could take hours to fix one. Mr. Cease, who says he has found evidence of more than 1,200 duplicate pension records, proposed creating a team to tackle the problem. But supervisors have not responded, he said.
The department says duplicate payments are rare — perhaps fewer than 100 a year.
A Department of Veterans Affairs worker processing pension claims in Salt Lake City.
More claims awaiting attention. The difficulty of keeping up can lead to duplicate files.
The veterans pension system, part of the sprawling Veterans Benefits Administration, pays more than $4 billion a year in benefits, mainly to low-income veterans. It also provides benefits to the survivors of veterans, who can receive monthly compensation even after a veteran dies. Pension center workers say duplicate payments mainly seem to involve survivors for a variety of reasons.
Both management and workers agree that the duplicate payments began about three years ago when the department started shifting from an older computer system to new technology known as the Veterans Service Network, or Vetsnet.
Under the old system, workers say, it was impossible to have more than one record for a veteran or relatives of a veteran. But with Vetsnet, workers say, the technology has allowed duplicate records.
The problem begins when there is a discrepancy in the identifying information. For instance, if a person is listed in the database without a Social Security number, new claims for that person using his or her Social Security number can lead to the creation of a duplicate record in Vetsnet, the workers say.
It was not unusual under the old system that the Social Security numbers of veterans’ spouses would not be on file; the veteran’s number was more important, workers said. But after a veteran died, a spouse’s Social Security number would be used in filing subsequent claims. And that could lead to a duplicate record.
Duplicate records do not always cause extra payments, the workers noted. But if an unsuspecting claims processor updates a duplicate record — perhaps because the survivor is seeking new or additional benefits — the computer may calculate benefits as if the person had filed a new claim. And that could lead to a second monthly check and a large retroactive payment.
A human being must sign off on the computer’s calculations. But if the person authorizing payments does not notice an excessive award — something Ms. Ruell says might happen when authorizers are inexperienced or rushed — duplicate payments can be approved.
Mr. McLenachen said that not only did authorizers usually catch duplicate payments, but that the system also had a fail-proof check: the Treasury Department will not issue payments without Social Security numbers. That ensures, he said, that it catches duplicate records when one has a number and one does not.
But Ms. Ruell says she has discovered cases where the Treasury Department system attached incorrect Social Security numbers to a survivor’s claim. The result, she said, was a duplicate payment.
A few days ago, a fellow employee brought her a case in which the computer calculated that a widow was owed $28,000. It was a duplicate payment, and Ms. Ruell corrected it. The system had worked. But it does not always, she insists.
“We’re not catching it,” she said.
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