Review of VBA’s Pension Management Centers

We conducted this review to determine if the Veterans Benefits Administration’s (VBA) Pension Management Centers (PMCs) ensure that pensioners receive timely benefit payments. We also assessed the implementation of prior recommendations from OIG’s FY 2007 audit of VBA’s Pension Maintenance Program. PMCs assumed processing responsibilities for live and death pension applications and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation in FY 2008 and 2009, respectively. This change increased the claims processing workload significantly at the PMCs. We found VBA did not process original death pension claim benefits timely because PMCs were not adequately prepared to process additional claims added to their workload from VA Regional Offices in FYs 2008 and 2009. In addition, VBA did not process Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration Income Verification Matches (IVM) timely, which resulted in overpayments. Lastly, VBA’s PMC performance measures in the Performance and Accountability Report do not adequately measure all the work processed. VBA has taken sufficient measures to address prior OIG recommendations. We identified an opportunity for VBA to ensure IVM actions are processed timely that can potentially save $205 million in overpayments. We recommended establishment of an operational plan to ensure PMCs efficiently and effectively manage the workload. VBA also needs to establish timeliness performance standards for completing Income Verification Matches to reduce overpayments, and to modify the Performance and Accountability Report performance measures to reflect the current workload and ensure transparency over actual performance. The Acting Under Secretary for Benefits agreed with our report findings and recommendations and plans to complete all corrective actions by November 30, 2011.