Overpayments of Education Benefits Could Be Reduced for Veterans Enrolled in Noncollege Degree Courses.
Abstract
Records of the 120 terminated veterans we reviewed showed that one-third of them were paid for more than their allowable number of absences. Also, because of VA's practice of paying benefits before knowing whether the veteran attended class, many veterans who dropped training were overpaid. Under VA's current policy no effort is made to collect overpayments for excess absences. Because an accounts receivable is not established, the veteran is not notified that he or she was overpaid. Likewise, no deduction is made from other VA benefits payable, such as compensation, pension, or educational benefits if the veteran enters any type of training other than NCD. If the results of our limited sample are representative of the NCD overpayment problem, it could prove to be a significant amount nationwide. We believe that most of the overpayments in the NCD program were attributable to weaknesses in the attendance reporting system and that overpayments could be reduced if veterans were required to certify their class attendance monthly rather than quarterly. This procedure would be substantially the same as that now used for veterans taking on-the-job and apprenticeship training. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA108482
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office