Assess need for pension debt content related to June 2022 SSA income verification

[laurwill]

Denise (OCTO PO of Debt Resolution team) requested a quick turnaround content update related to communications to Veterans about a pension debt situation. Here's suggested content from that team: draft pension letter va.gov language 3.0.docx

Laura will work with Denise to determine the best way to address this on VA.gov.

[laurwill]

Hi @denisecoveyduc , Danielle filled us in on this request for content related to the June 2022 SSA income verification situation, and we have a few questions as we figure out the best way to address this on VA.gov:

• When VA discovered the miscalculation and related overpayments, did we first tell the affected beneficiaries that they had pension overpayment debts, before telling them in November 2023 that we were suspending collection? Or was the November 2023 letter the first communication about this situation?
• Do these affected beneficiaries see their correct debt balance in the portal now (the balance after we decided not to collect debts related to this situation)? Did they previously see a balance that included the pension debts that we suspended collection on?

Thank you!

[denisecoveyduc]

Hi @laurwill Preparing answers to those two questions now.. in the meantime here is a copy of the letter that was sent out. 2.22.24 DMC Pension Dis-establishment Letter - Final 03182024 OM_USB approved.docx

[denisecoveyduc]

Hi @laurwill Following up with answers to the previous questions:

Question 1 The November letter was not the first communication. The affected accounts would have received demand notices from DMC before that telling them they had a pension debt.

Question 2 These debts would have initially been VODA but once we put them in an 015 status and suspended the collection efforts then these debts would not be visible in VODA; so none of them should be visible now. Once the issue is fully corrected and if they have a remaining balance, that balance then would be visible in VODA when we take them out of the 015 status (015 = Special Handling).

[laurwill]

Hi @denisecoveyduc , thanks for hashing out those additional Qs over slack. Documenting here that I adjusted language to match the terms used in the actual letters sent to beneficiaries.

Here's the draft alert that we can place on the Manage your VA debt page:

And here's the draft Q&A content that the alert will link to. This will live on the VA debt management Q&A page.

After stakeholders confirm accuracy of this content, we'll need to do a final copyedit before we publish. Let me know if you have any questions!

[denisecoveyduc]

Thanks @laurwill sending it over to stakeholders for signoff.. thank you!

[denisecoveyduc]

Hi @laurwill Two small change requests from DMC.

"On blue box can we add “verification” between income and match? Also add verification between income and match in the 2nd paragraph in the Q&A"

[laurwill]

Thanks @denisecoveyduc ! I made those changes and published the alert and the Q&A. I'll confirm when they're live.

cc @megzehn for when you're back in the office next week — @saratorres2 reviewed this content for me and I did prepub checklist and published. But could you take a look and see if I missed any documentation or tagging steps related to new R&S nodes? Thank you!

[laurwill]

Content is live @denisecoveyduc — let us know if you need anything else!

And since this content won't be needed forever, do you have a suggested timeline for archiving the alert? Would 2 or 3 months be long enough?

[denisecoveyduc]

Thanks @laurwill I have reviewed with our business partners and they are quite pleased. Thank you for the expedited collaboration to launch this info for Veterans!!! Appreciate it very much.

We are currently thinking two months would probably be enough but confirming higher up. Initial thought would be to keep the resources and support information but remove the banner but I will circle back once they have discussed.

[megzehn]

cc @megzehn for when you're back in the office next week — @saratorres2 reviewed this content for me and I did prepub checklist and published. But could you take a look and see if I missed any documentation or tagging steps related to new R&S nodes? Thank you!

If the R&S page already existed and we just added nodes, then we're all good on the post-publish steps. Thank you both for taking care of this! (And sorry for the late reply!)

[strelichl]

@denisecoveyduc I see we've passed the two month mark, this ok to close out now?

[denisecoveyduc]

@strelichl Let me confirm with DMC Stakeholder and circle back.

[laurwill]

Noting we replaced this alert with the disaster help info alert after debt team confirmed this was okay — moving this ticket to validate.