VA mix-up upends life of Arkansas vet

96-year-old’s pension abruptly stops

Jesse Whitley, 96, a World War II veteran, speaks at his home in Mabelvale on Wednesday about his pension being wrongfully garnished for several months because of an error at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Jesse Whitley, 96, a World War II veteran, speaks at his home in Mabelvale on Wednesday about his pension being wrongfully garnished for several months because of an error at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

World War II veteran Jesse Whitley lived off his monthly pension of about $1,500 from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs until that money disappeared without notice several months ago.

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World War II veteran Jesse Whitley, a member of the First Special Service Force during World War II, had to rely on money from his out-of-town children to get by after the Department of Veterans Affairs mistakenly garnished his pension for several months.

It was being garnished because of a clerical error, according to records reviewed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The VA had confused Whitley, 96, of Mabelvale with Jessie Whitley, 68, of Durham, N.C., who the VA said had defaulted on a 20-year-old loan for property in New Jersey.

"No notice, no nothing," Whitley, the Arkansan, said.

This was a major blow for someone like Whitley, who can no longer work. How would he pay his in-home caretaker? How would he pay to have his grass mowed? How would he buy groceries?

Whitley lives in a small house 20 minutes outside of Little Rock that he and his wife built in the late 1970s -- almost a decade before the North Carolina Whitley's loan was signed. The Arkansan walks with a silver cane, and smiles so big that his eyes almost close.

A clerical error turned his life upside down, but Whitley thought it could be corrected before he missed another month's check. So he gathered a "mountain" of paperwork that he thought proved, unequivocally, that he had never borrowed the money.

He provided the VA with documents showing his Social Security number, date of birth, U.S. Army serial number and the spelling of his first name, which differed from the one listed on the original loan. The only thing he and the original debtor had in common was their last name.

But, his efforts didn't work. The pension continued to be withheld.

Whitley said money from his out-of-town daughter and son allowed him to get by without his pension for a while.

With nowhere else to turn to get his pension restored, Whitley contacted U.S. Rep. French Hill's office. The Republican lawmaker from Little Rock and his staff resolved the matter in short order, and after several months, the VA sent Whitley $5,392 on Aug. 23, documents show.

Jessica Jacobsen, a VA spokesman, apologized for the error in a statement.

"The VA greatly apologizes for the ordeal Mr. Whitley had to go through to rectify and reinstate his VA pension," she said. "This was clearly an error on our part, an issue where two Veterans shared the same last name. Whenever an error like this occurs, VA attempts to make good on this error and correct immediately. In this particular instance, this was not handled timely and accurately for the Veteran."

The loan mix-up should have taken "four seconds" to correct, Hill said.

"It's mind-boggling to me the level of incompetence; they didn't even try," he said of the VA. "This should not take involvement from Congress to solve, and it should be an embarrassment to the VA."

Although the pension was restored, Whitley received another letter from the VA on Sept. 7, again instructing him to begin paying on the 20-year-old loan that he never took out.

"It's just ridiculous," Whitley said. "Nothing is the same except our last name."

Whitley is tired of dealing with it. He'll probably just ignore the latest letter, he said.

Jacobsen said the VA had contacted Whitley directly and apologized. The letter was sent due to a computer error, she said.

"A follow-up letter in an attempt to collect debt should have never been sent once the error was corrected," she said.

The Golden Fleece

A large case displaying Whitley's numerous combat medals sits in his home. He was a member of the First Special Service Force -- a precursor to modern-day special operations forces in the U.S. and Canada.

He served in five different campaigns, including in France, Germany and Norway during World War II. His unit was depicted in the 1968 film The Devil's Brigade, starring William Holden and Cliff Robertson.

He speaks about his military service with pride, but he breaks down at one point while describing combat in the European theater of the war. He can still hear the cries of German soldiers.

"Oh God, war is hell," he said during a recent interview at his home, burying his face in his frail hands to hide the tears.

For Hill, the fact that a decorated veteran such as Whitley faced such struggles with the VA over his pension underscores the broader problems within the agency.

In August, Hill bestowed upon the agency the Golden Fleece Award, which spotlights wasteful spending within the federal government. One week before, the VA office of inspector general had reported that an $8 million solar panel project at the central Arkansas VA was four years behind schedule and was expected to exceed its budget by $1.5 million because of mismanagement.

Earlier this year, the inspector general released the findings of another investigation that revealed that the central Arkansas VA was entangled in a nationwide patient wait-time manipulation scandal. An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette investigation then showed that the VA had failed to discipline the employees involved until months after it said it had. The hospital said it has since implemented corrective measures.

Whitley was very complimentary of the care he has received over the years through the central Arkansas VA. It was the federal agency's Debt Management Center that gave him grief.

"I think within these civil government agencies you have work rules with government services unions that make it difficult to discipline poor employees," Hill said. He added that any veterans having problems with the VA should contact his office.

The VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016, which Hill supported, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday with bipartisan support. The bill would ease and shorten the discipline process for VA employees.

The bill is awaiting consideration in the U.S. Senate, where a similar bill is pending.

Arkansas' U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, co-sponsored the Veterans First Act, which would make it easier for the VA secretary to remove employees and address other common problems with veterans benefits.

"Our veterans shouldn't face bureaucratic obstacles when they try to get the benefits they earned," Boozman said. "We need to ensure the VA is administering benefits efficiently and correctly while making the care of our veterans the top priority.

"And it can be done," he said. "Whether it's legislation aimed at streamlining the appeals process, giving the VA the tools to fire bad actors, or prohibiting bonuses for employees accused of wrongdoing, we must use the legislative process to enhance VA services -- we owe it to our veterans."

Metro on 09/18/2016

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