Military spouses face another fight over VA death benefits

Death certificate snafu can leave military spouses battling for benefits
Staten Island Live
Tom Wrobleski
April 1, 2014

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was hard enough for Josephine Maruffi and Carmela Fernandes to lose their husbands after lifetimes spent together.

But the pain was deepened when the Veterans Administration (V.A.) denied the widows the benefits they were due through their husbands' military service.

And all because of a paperwork issue that should be easily remedied, said Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) and City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore).

And many more military spouses in New York City could be suffering the same difficulty without even realizing it, they said.

"I dealt with the V.A. for almost two years," said Ms. Fernandes, an 80-year-old Eltingville resident.

"I must have spoken to them 50 times. They never said why they were denying me."

Speaking in Grimm's New Dorp district office, Ms. Fernandes said that she was due close to $1,800 in monthly benefits through her late husband, Anthony, an Army veteran who'd served in combat in the Korean War and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The problem: The V.A. does not approve death benefits if a death certificate does not list a cause of death. New York City's one-page, "short-form" death certificate does not list causes of death, Grimm said.
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