Veterans Affairs Asks Former Marine to Pay Back $100k in Pension Benefits

A low-income U.S. Marines veteran has been asked to pay more than $100,000 back to the government after the Department of Veterans Affairs said he was overpaid in his monthly pension payments over the past decade.

Patrick McFeely, 71, of Sarasota County, Florida, told 10 Tampa Bay he was notified of the substantial debt through a letter last month which said he was paid $108,094 more than he was entitled to and that the agency would begin withholding $221 a month until he pays it all back.

McFeely said he has lived off of about $2,400 a month in pension and Social Security payments since he turned 62. He previously had no idea there was any issue, he said.

“When I called I got the runaround and them saying that it's because I collect Social Security and they didn't know it,” McFeely said.

“They said I didn't report it, but what is documented that they know I was collecting Social Security at the time,” McFeely added.

McFeely is one of thousands of veterans who are now being asked to hand back cash to the VA, which provides pension payments to low-income veterans who served during wartime.

“I don't know what to say, but I don't think this is right, the way they treat people,” McFeely said. “Too much red tape.”

In a statement, VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes told 10 Tampa Bay that the problem spurred from an issue that prohibited the department from being able to verify veterans' income for 11 years.

“Between 2011 and 2022, due to discrepancies in data matching, VA was unable to reliably verify the self-reported federal income of Veterans and survivors receiving pensions,” Hayes said in a statement. "When income verification resumed in July 2022, roughly 9,900 beneficiaries were determined to have higher income levels than self-reported.

"This resulted in VA pension overpayments which — in some cases — spanned many years."

McFeely said he did not report his Social Security income because he did not know it was required and thought he would have been alerted if there was an apparent issue.

The VA said it will now withhold debt collection until it figures out "the path forward," citing how the problem affects "a particularly vulnerable population of Veterans and survivors."