First, on October 5, 2021, I received a message from Veterans and Military Affairs Liaison Anthony Eliopoulos for Senator Sherrod Brown concerning the situation at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC).
The NPRC is the location where veterans, seeking to file their disability compensation claims, can obtain their military medical and personnel records. Without those records, the Veteran Benefits Administration (VBA) will not process the veterans’ disability claims.
The Clermont Sun first surfaced the backlog of over 500,000 requests for military records in their December 9, 2020 issue. In July of 2021, the Clermont Sun reported that the backlog remained the same and the NPRC was focusing on urgent requests, such as involving funerals, medical emergencies and homeless veterans seeking shelter.
The October 2021 NPRC update stated that, because the of the spread of the Delta Variant, the NPRC on-site staff was reduced in August and the processing of requests declined. The records request backlog now still remains at 500,000, the same as on December of 2020.
As of September 27, 2021, the on-site NPRC staff is at only at 25%. By November of 2021, David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, estimates that 75% of the pre-pandemic workforce will be processing requests on-site. The NPRC will continue “to maximize the amount of work being done by those working remotely.”
The goal of the NRPC is “to eliminate the backlog of public requests by the end of FY 2022.” The NPRC has made improvements in expediting the process of military records requests since December of 2020. A recent improvement was the implementing a third shift of workers at the facility, which started on September 20, 2021.
Another planned improvement was the recruitment of 150 new staff members and doubling the number of contract employees. Other improvements deal with restoring the NRPC Call Center to pre-pandemic levels and purchasing laptop computers to service requests electronically.
The second update that I received was from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Starting October 1, 2021, the VA has resumed debt collections from over 600,000 veterans. These veterans were overpaid their disability compensations, educational benefits or their co-payments for medical visits.
The VA had previously suspended their veterans’ debt collection program because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the suspension, which started in April of 2020, was only temporary. The VA intends to collect over $1.13 billion in debt collection from the veterans.
The VA stated that approximately 50% percent of the veterans have already started to make re-imbursement payments to the VA. Officials from the VA indicated that veterans will start receiving debt collection notifications in the near future. Information will be provided on the methods of repayment and what financial assistance would be available to them.
According to VA officials, the VA will not start deducting the veterans’ debts from their monthly payments until January of 2022. This will give the veterans adequate time to prepare and budget ahead for the planned re-payments.
Disabled veterans who owe debts related to disability compensation and pension benefits will automatically be placed into a 36-month repayment plan starting on January 1, 2022.
However, there are cases where veterans have small financial benefits and large outstanding debts. The money withheld by the VA may eliminate their entire monthly allowance. In these “rare cases” the VA officials from the VA’s Debt Management Center would work with the veterans to ensure that the re-payment plan would not cause severe financial harm.
Disabled veterans can submit applications to defer debt collection action until September 30, 2022. Veterans can also appeal to have their debts reduced or eliminated. Veterans should contact the VA Debt Management Center at 1-800-827-0648 if they have question about debts owed because of benefit overpayment or mistakes.
My Opinion: First, it is difficult to understand why ten (10) months have elapsed (from December of 2020 to September of 2021) and there has been no significant reduction in the backlog of 500,000 requests for military personnel and medical records from the NPRC.
The December of 2020 date was cited because that was the first acknowledgement from the NPRC that a backlog problem existed, (since April of 2020 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.)
This acknowledgement was spurred by Congressmen, such as Rep. Warren Davidson, who visited the NPRC facility in St. Louis and observed the significance of the backlog and how it was negatively impacting disabled veterans as they were seeking their personnel and medical records.
Senator Sherrod Brown and other Senators also expressed a valid concern and had their staff, such as Mr. Eliopoulos, monitor the situation for them. Prior to July of 2021, over 3,000 requests to the NPRC were submitted from Members of Congress voicing their concern of the backlog.
The NPRC has responded and is making improvements in their delivery of needed records to our disabled veterans. Their quarterly written reports to Congress cite the improvements, however their goal of eliminating the over 500,000 records request backlog by September 2022 is not very realistic.
Every day discharged veterans will be submitting their requests for military records. To be realistic, the backlog at the NPRC did not start because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic certainly contributed to the backlog increasing. However, if a plan was implemented at the outset, the scope of the problem would have been reduced.
For example, why is the NPRC just now implementing a third shift at their facility? Why haven’t the Department of Defense (DoD) been involved in solving the backlog problem earlier with their Personnel Service units?
However, now is not the time to point fingers on what should have been done. Now is the time to get the job done for our disabled veterans. Congress is aware of the situation and hopefully their constant oversight of the NPRC will get results.
Second, the VBA has constructed a workable plan for the debt collection for overpaid disability compensation, owed medical co-payments and education benefits. Their decision not to start the collection action until January of 2022 coincides with the over five (5%) anticipated cost-of-living allowance (COLA) implementation.
The projected $1.13 billion overpayment is owed to the federal government and will be re-paid by the veterans in gradual amounts. But, at least the VBA is making plans that will not put a severe financial strain on the veterans.
John Plahovinsak is a retired 32-year Army veteran and the Chapter Adjutant of Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Chapter #63 (Clermont County). He can be reached at plahovinsak@msn.com.