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HRD-88-24 1 (1988-03-16)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabgbr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Appendix VIII Comments From the Veterans Administration 2. In view of the foregoing, we feel that the interests of our beneficiaries will be best served by the continued use of the one-page EVR form. We will, however, carefully review each question to determine if it can be improved. Regarding GAO's suggested revision of EVR question SD (See report pages 90-91.), a simplified revision of this question appeared on the old AIQ form. It simply asked, Did any income change (increase/decrease) in 1983?' We regularly received thousands of these back with yes checked. When we wrote for an explanation, the beneficiary invariably said he/she received a social security cost-of-living increase. Since we already adjust pension and parents' dependency and indemnity compensation accounts for this increase via computer updating and matching, a considerable amount of costly unnecessary development was being undertaken. Consequently, we added the existing parenthetical which tells the beneficiary to check no if the only change was a Social Security cost-of-living Allowance. This parenthetical has almost totally eliminated unnecessary reporting and the development needed to resolve the issue. GAO also recommended that the Administrator pretest the revised documents with a sample of beneficiaries before programide implementation, to assure that the beneficiaries clearly understand each question and instruction. We do not concur. While pretesting does have merit, we do not believe that doing so now would significantly improve reporting. The main cause of overpayments is beneficiary failure to report wages, interest, and dividends. The questions asking for this information are quite simple and uncluttered. In our opinion, reduction of overpayments through improved form design would be insignificant. Instead, we need the ability to verify wages, interest, and dividends. Comments on Report Text: Page 11, footnote, line 4 -- The third circumstance under which needy surviving children of =veterans are separately eligible for benefits should read, (3) they are not in the custody of the surviving spouse. Page 15, paragraph 2, line 5 -- This sentence is not accurate. VA's Office ofTnspector General WIG) wage match efforts were modeled after the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency project Federal Employees Receiving Government Assistance. The final report for that project, which began in early 1981, was issued in September 1983. The interim report for the portion of the interagency project was issued in Miarch 1983. Computer screening criteria were developed in that project for match reliability between VA pension master records and records of other automated systems, and for specifying earned income levels for referral foi adjudicative review. The decision to continue the review by examining private sector enployment records was made in 1982 following an assessment of Department of Agriculture dIG wage matching efforts in Chicago. We suggest modifying the sentence as follows: Using an approach modeled after the President's Council on Integrity and Efficienc project Federal Employees Receiving Government GAOiHR)-88-24 Veterans' Pensions Now on p 78 Now on p 10 Now on p 14 Page 90

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