Mistaken Death Causes Veteran a Lot of Grief

Prunedale couple battles bureaucracy and VA says he owes it a big bundle of money
by Sunita Vijayan

Left, Kathleen and Ray Blount of the Royal Oaks region of Prunedale go over some of the paperwork and letters they’ve exchanged with the Department of Veterans Affairs, which listed Ray Blount dead and unmarried. He’s still alive and has been wedded to Kathleen for 37 years.

Vietnam veteran Ray Blount, 58, of Prunedale is very much alive and a husband of 37 years.

Unfortunately for the Blounts, the U.S. government for four months last year disagreed – certain he had died nearly 30 years ago yet is also a single man who today owes the Department of Veterans Affairs a hefty amount of money.

Kathleen Blount, his 63-year-old wife, said she and Ray learned of his "death" six months ago from a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs letter expressing the department's sympathies…

"Not only did they kill him off, the death was in 1978," said Kathleen, a retired teacher. "We got the condolence letter on his death in December and a P.S. saying that we owed them $24,000."

The national Veterans Affairs office, she said, claimed the money owed was in reference to disability benefits received since 2004, when he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kathleen said she and her husband first met with Eddie Humada, a veterans representative with the Monterey County Military and Veterans Affairs office in Salinas, in November 2004 to file a disability claim for Ray's ailments.

She immediately took the letter to Humada, who she said submitted the necessary documents to prove her husband was still alive.

But while waiting for a response from Veterans Affairs, Kathleen said, the benefits payments they were supposed to receive in January and February didn't arrive.

On Feb. 14, she said, a letter declaring her husband was alive arrived – but the confusion was only beginning."About three weeks after that, we got another letter by the Veterans Affairs saying: 'We corrected it, and you only owe us $975 in the two years we paid you as if you had a spouse,'" she said.

The Blounts, married for the past 37 years, were understandably surprised by Ray's newly declared bachelor status. Taking Humada's advice, they decided to bring the matter to the office of U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, on April 3.

About 10 days later, Kathleen said, the couple received a letter from Veterans Affairs apologizing for not acknowledging her existence.

Humada said the issues the Blounts faced are not unusual.

"It's administrative error coupled with human error," he said, "which is difficult to clear up, because the Veterans Affairs is a bureaucracy. It's happened often enough that we're familiar with it, so it's not an uncommon problem."

The Monterey County Military and Veterans Affairs office, an advocacy agency that helps constituents work with the Department of Veterans Affairs, serves more than 30,000 veterans county wide.

The key to resolving a problem with the Veterans Affairs is providing hard evidence and detailed explanations, Humada said.

'Overwhelmed by the war'
Farr, who sits on the subcommittee on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies, works on a congressional level on issues his constituents, such as the Blounts, bring forward.

"The Veterans Affairs department tries very hard to help everybody, but they're overwhelmed by the war right now," said Jessica Schafer, Farr's press secretary, in April. "It's a big bureaucracy, and that's the reason why people come to us – we have one case worker that handles that."

Kathleen said Monday that about two weeks ago, she noticed $1,200 had been deposited into their bank account by the Veterans Affairs office. She said the Department still owes the couple $990 in spousal support and benefits, but she's happy the issues are "more or less squared."

Kathleen said she and Ray have been able to laugh about the situation, but it did cause them financial strain.

"People need to be more knowledgeable, and the Veterans Affairs has got to be more user-friendly," she said. "There are guys on the street who depend on the Veterans Affairs for income … They've got to take more responsibility on their veterans and not just leave it to the veterans."

 

 

Go to original article

"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on VT may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. VT has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is VT endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)