Citation Nr: 21069002
Decision Date: 11/17/21	Archive Date: 11/17/21

DOCKET NO. 17-02 714
DATE: November 17, 2021

REMANDED

Whether an overpayment in the amount of $10,005.41 due to concurrent receipt of Dependents' Educational Assistance (DEA) and dependent disability benefits was properly created is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran had active service from July 1991 to July 1995.  

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a March 2014 letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO), notifying her that the proposal to reduce her benefits because K. and M. elected to receive DEA had been implemented, resulting in an overpayment.  

In September 2019, the Board remanded the appeal for further development.  As a result of the Board's remand, the RO found that one of the dates used to remove a dependent child from the Veteran's award was incorrect, thereby reducing the overpayment from $17,684.41 to $10,005.41.

Whether an overpayment in the amount of $10,005.41 due to concurrent receipt of Dependents' Educational Assistance (DEA) and dependent disability benefits was properly created is remanded.

Unfortunately, there has not been substantial compliance with the Board's previous remand directives.  Specifically, the Board's September 2019 remand directed that a written paid and due audit from Fiscal Year 2009 to the present be associated with the record and provided to the Veteran and her representative.  This does not appear to have been done.  While the RO recalculated the amount of the Veteran's overpayment after changing the date that one of the Veteran's dependents began receiving DEA benefits, the dates still do not match what the Veteran has reported in her January 2017 substantive appeal.  Another remand is required.  Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998). 

The matter is REMANDED for the following action:

Set forth in the record a written paid and due audit of the Veteran's benefits for the period associated with the reported overpayments (i.e., DEA and dependent disability benefits in FY 2009 to the present).

The audit should reflect, on a month-by-month basis, the amount actually paid to the Veteran, as well as the amount properly due.  A copy of this written audit should be placed in the claims file and another provided to the Veteran and her representative.

 

C. CRAWFORD

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	A. Dean, Counsel

The Board's decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.