Veterans’ disability benefits claims were blindly rubber-stamped by a senior veterans service representative (VSR) at the Philadelphia VA Regional Benefit Office for years, resulting in an estimated $2.2 million in improper payments, a government watchdog report has found.
A hotline tip made about the employee resulted in an investigation which found they were approving payments at a high volume without even opening or reading attached documents.
The errors caused by the federal worker included improper payments to veterans, violations of regulations that could affect veterans’ benefits and procedural deficiencies, the report found.
The blind approvals occurred from at least fiscal year 2022 through 2024, when the employee was found to have authorized about 85,300 claims — 19 times the national average, and at an 84% error rate.
As a senior VSR, the employee was responsible for final review and approval of veteran benefits claims awards — a complex task demanding thoroughness to ensure that claim information is correct and veterans receive appropriate benefits.
However, it was common knowledge within the office that the employee was not actually working, the Office of Inspector General report revealed. In some cases the employee took only about 3 minutes between making each approval.
According to the report, as early as October 2023 the Northeast District director was on record noting, “It is not physically possible to do that many authorizations and perform the real functions of the job.”
While it was known that the employee was firing off approvals at slapdash speed, the individual was backed strongly by supervisors in the regional office, who shielded them from being held accountable.
“Philadelphia VA Regional Office leaders were aware of the senior VSR’s unusually high authorization rate, and the Northeast District director raised concerns about it multiple times,” the OIG report noted.
The result was that veterans’ disability benefits claims were processed incorrectly and taxpayer dollars were dispensed haphazardly due to negligence and disregard.
The report notes that in six months, from Jan. 1, 2024, through June 30, 2024, the employee approved about 15,600 benefits decisions. Taking a closer look at 32 of them, investigators found that 27 contained errors — the majority of which were due to the employee simply ignoring the necessary functions of their job.
“In one of these decisions with errors, the senior VSR did not open any documents before authorizing the decision,” the OIG report stated. “The team identified errors that involved incorrect entitlement determinations, not identifying benefits claimed by the veteran, and procedural deficiencies.”
The full magnitude of the incorrectly disbursed payments has not been assessed, with $2.2 million being only a current estimate. The report states that the Veterans Benefit Administration is working to correct the errors by year’s end.
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
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