
(FixThisNation.com) – In 1992 Vernon Reffitt had been offered $30,000 to leave the military, this was a one-time lump sum offered to service members as the U.S. Army was downsizing its activity-duty force. Over three decades later the federal government is now requesting that money back.
The Department of Veterans Affairs started to withhold the monthly disability compensation payments in May. These were payments that Reffitt, 62, had been receiving since he left the force. The payments are not going to continue back up until he has repaid the $30,000 which could take close to 15 years.
Reffitt, who resides in Twin City, Georgia, argued that what was happening was wrong and that they could not just take back the payments.
Reffitt is not the only person to have found himself in such a position, as there is a little-known law that states that veterans are not allowed to receive special separation pay and disability. The VA is now using this law to recoup the special separation benefits from those veterans because they are allowed to go back to receiving disability payments.
From 2013 to 2020 the law has led to at least 79,000 veterans having to pay back different separation benefits. It is likely that an even higher number of veterans are going to be affected, but the number is not yet known as the 2022 study by RAND Corporation on this issue was unable to access any data dating back to before 2013 because of the VA system changes.
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