Feds sue to recover cash sent to dead veteran

When a veteran receiving disability checks dies, the family has to notify the VA. This is not a case of a family member deciding to keep the money. It was automatically deposited into the bank account of this veteran. What this does end up doing is cause everyone reading this to wonder, how many others is this happening to? After all, we've all read about homeless, forgotten veterans, long forgotten by families. Some of them could have walked away from everything, including disability checks. Impossible? No not really.

When they give up, they give up all the way. There should be some way of keeping track of our veterans and knowing if they are dead or alive.

Funeral home operators notify social security and in the case of veterans, they notify the VA. So how did it happen that the VA didn't know they were sending checks to a veteran laid to rest? When my Dad died, the funeral home notified the VA and so did we. When my father-in-law died, we didn't have to notify the VA because he never had a claim. We couldn't even get help to bury him even though he was a WWII veteran with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. When my Mom died, again, we notified the VA and social security along with her pension.

How many others are slipping through the cracks? Is anyone checking? Aren't there rules to go by all the way around the country? Raises a lot of questions that need to be answered.

Feds sue to recover cash sent to dead veteran

Associated Press

2:07 p.m. CDT, August 26, 2009


DETROIT - The federal government says it mistakenly gave more than $50,000 to a dead Detroit man. Now it wants the money back.

The government recently filed a lawsuit in federal court in Detroit, seeking to have the state of Michigan turn over the money.
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Feds sue to recover cash sent to dead veteran