http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28211216/
So apparently, "Widows of war veterans have been wrongfully denied up to millions of dollars in government benefits over the past 12 years because of computer glitches that often resulted in money being seized from the elderly survivors' bank accounts."
Like how do these things go by unnoticed for so long? Like, isn't it someone's job to ensure money gets to these families? I just do not understand how there is a whole department for helping veterans and this never came up.
And furthermore,
"But the VA never updated its automated computer systems, which send out checks and notification letters. As a result, widows were either denied the final month of payment or asked to send the checks back. In many cases, if the checks were already deposited or spent, the U.S. Treasury moved to seize the money directly from the widow's account."
They seized the money right out of the woman's account like is there no human here who checks this stuff. Honestly, people are always pledging to help the veterans and stuff but do they really mean it? Anyway, "President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to "fix the benefits bureaucracy" at the VA. Last week, he named Retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, a former Army chief of staff, to be the next VA secretary." so hopefull that will work out but really, they never updated the computer system? Boy, I feel safe now what with all this "advanced" technology helping us. I mean, if this one is all messed up, what about other systems in other departments? Are they causing problems to? Well, I guess all I can really say is let's hope not.
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12 comments:
I believe/know that the money that was supposed to help the widows went directly into the pockets of corrupt public officials.
It is pretty distrubing that there are many groups out there who "support" the veterans but none of them noticed this.
Incredible. A "glitch in the system" puts a woman's life in danger, making it difficult to live. As if she didn't have enough pain and suffering at the loss of her husband.
People need to feel secure in their technology if they are going to use it, which comes into play when discussing the economy. If massive issues like this continue to happen in government pay systems, many people will feel insecure about their money. This, in turn, could lead to decreased government bond participation, lowered spending as a result of lost checks, and general psychological fear of putting money into a system that may not be fully functioning.
I little "oops" goes a long way when talking about government structure.
What happened to the widows is awful, but what is really disconcerting are these so called "computer glitches". They have been going on for 12 years and nobody has thought to fix them, or do something about them? I highly doubt that they went unnoticed, and then that begs to question if the government did notice it, but just decided to turn a blind eye. It's kinda funny that the government is lucky to benefit from a computer glitch....
I agree, bad mistake on the part of the government. Someone should really be watching that. But then again what about the 50,000 widows who had their money taken away? The article said that Sen. Daniel Akaka told someone to do something about it after he recieved a complaint but shouldn't their have been a lot more complaints before this. I mean, if I know that I am supposed to be getting this money I wouldn't wait years to complain about it getting taken away. What happened? People need to start complaining to government more because this could have gone on longer if no one said anything.
sorry to not comment on veterans' widows, but Jesse, can you PLEASE post about the guy in Iraq who threw his shoes at President Bush. And if possible, get a video. Bush has some great ducking skills.
@Colby
Here is the story you're talking about: Bush: Iraq war is not over, more work ahead (Watch the video to see George's fantastic dodging skill)
That guy is going to Gitmo...but at least they didn't tase him.
We live in a corrupt society. Hearing about errors like this makes me wonder how many government officials/interest groups profit at the expense of others. People get scammed all of the time in this country and it's just sad that our government cant be trusted to fulfill its obligation to the widows of veterans who gave their lives for their country. The least the government can do is give those who lost everything what they are owed. I doubt this is the last time something like this will occur as we are currently in a war that is destroying families. Soldiers are returning home with severe disabilities that prevent them from ever being able to live and work as they could have prior to deployment to Iraq. What happens to those veterans and their families if the government fails them too. The whole thing just makes me really angry especially when it concerns wars that were almost voluntary (Vietnam, Iraq.) It is argued that both Vietnam and Iraq were a mistake and it angers me that people have been suffering and will continue to suffer because of conflict that could have been avoided.
Talk about corrupt bureaucracy. Just when we finally think we're out of the woods, that the computers will take care of everything since they don't have ulterior motives or greed to feed. But in our excitement about technology we have forgotten that it isn't infallible, that it's still manipulatable. Maybe it was a computer error, maybe it wasn't. But there is no possible excuse for letting this go on for so long, someone had to have noticed, surely. I wonder if we will uncover more of these "errors" during Obama's attempts to cut down on expenses and hopefully trim back the bureaucracy. And I completely agree with Alex, I mean you've lost your husband to a war, maybe more than just him, and you can't even get the money he earned? Assuming someone is as fault for this, it makes you wonder how low the government is willing to go. And it doesn't stop there. How many war veterans are waiting months to receive benefits themselves? Hopefully Obama will make good on his promises.
I agree with Laura in that the governmenT is corrupt and MAJOR GLITCHES LIKE THIS HAPPEN. It is hard to bElieVE THAT FOR SO LONG, no ONE noTIceD THIS GRanD ERROR ANd it is sad anD UNjust MakinG CERTAIN unDESerVING people Suffer, bUT what can WE DO TO FIX THIS probLEM? WHAT CAN we do tO prevenT THIS from happENInG AGAIN? rELY LESS ON today's tecHNology? HaVE MORE CHECKS ON thESE TYPES OF THINGs?
I thINK all of the AboVE.
*sORRY FOr thE FUNKing TypinG. I'm using MY SISTER'S LAPTOP WHICH SHE SPILLED LIQUID ON and Messed up the keyboARD. :)
I think it's interesting that no one has noticed or bothered to fix these glitches--if you really want to help people, why would you set up glitched machines that take money from them? I hope these widows get repaid.
I'm a bit surprised that this problem wasn't recognized sooner, especially if widows have been sending in complaints about getting skipped on their last checks for the past 12 years. Like usual, cases like these that come up highlight the bad aspects of bureaucracy, which in this case is the ignorance to problems like this until they are uncovered by politicians and the media.
However, I wouldn't put the blame on the computer programs themselves that run the program to send out the checks. The programs do exactly as the government told them to do, which was to send out checks and take back money that it believes was not supposed to be sent out. If someone made a mistake while programming the computers and somehow forgot to tell them to send out the last checks, then its a human error. We should be smacking those lazy government programmers for not realizing and addressing this issue sooner.
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