Review of VBA’s Unidentifiable Mail Certification Process

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this review to determine whether the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) accurately certified unidentifiable mail packets as of March 1, 2025. When VBA staff cannot match a veteran’s submitted documents—including both physical and electronic copies—for disability compensation, pension, or other benefits to their electronic claims folder, the mail packet is certified as unidentifiable. When this certification is applied incorrectly, veterans, their beneficiaries, or other claimants might be underpaid or their claims may be delayed, denied, or missed altogether.

The OIG estimated that, out of more than 164,000 unidentifiable packets in the system as of March 1, 2025, roughly 35,100 (21 percent) contained enough information to correctly match them to a claimant. This means that veterans and other claimants could have been underpaid at least a combined $822,000 since July 2018. But more underpayments likely exist than what the OIG estimated because some errors the team identified could result in monetary impact once VBA processes the claims. An additional 19,900 packets contained potential errors that could affect benefits. Nearly all packets reviewed showed missed steps, including incomplete documentation and not archiving mail as required.

These issues occurred partly because staff did not always complete the required actions when certifying unidentified mail and did not always have access to the systems and resources necessary to identify claimants. Additionally, quality reviews did not thoroughly assess unidentifiable mail certification, leaving leaders without key information needed to ensure accurate processing. Finally, VBA does not provide staff-specific training on how to identify or process unidentified mail.

While VBA has begun taking steps to address the concerns identified by this review, including expanding system access for contracted staff, the OIG made five recommendations to strengthen controls, training, and oversight.