The VA Is holding dad's check. Any advice?

Tiny? Is this to do with the move?

Worse than ridiculous, Tiny. It's potentially expensive, at the expense of your father, who is supposed to be the focus of everybody's care and attention, here. Outrageous!

I am agog to hear, when you track this person down, how the proposed fiduciary will go about paying your father's bills when s/he doesn't know what they are...?

I assume the office refused to give you a contact name or number, did they? I'm just wondering how long and how many attempts it might take for the replacement letter to reach your new address. Not that I mean to make you feel worse :(

May be go to a local newspaper.
Abuse of a VA. And abuse of the system. Incompetence. Aged related. Anything you can think of. The fact that you work two jobs to pay both of your ways. etc. etc.

And very good luck to you both. It is disgusting.

Contacting the VA is a nightmare - Contact your congressman - my MIL had a problem with SS years ago and her checks had been stopped. She tried to get it cleared up for three months to no avail. She called her congresswoman's office and they got it straightened out immediately.

So... I was able to track down the lawyer who was assigned my Dad's case, and apparently, without my knowledge, he's been gathering Dad's bill info and will be sending out a check... TO THE WRONG FACILITY!!!!

The information he has is wrong, and he proceeded to ask me "Where is the $800 deficit coming from?" I LIVIDLY told him that it comes from my bank account and if I would have been INFORMED of this change, checks wouldn't be bouncing like goodyear tires right now...

...THEN they told me that I was "released" because I didn't complete the paperwork... THAT I NEVER RECEIVED!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say, I got ZERO work done today, and I'm due to move Dad Friday. It never ends...

I hope that if you get charged 'late fees' that lawyer will pay them for you? After all it IS HIS FAULT.

Is he correcting HIS ERROR straight away?

Resort back to Linda22 suggestion.

...wrote my congresswoman a letter AND contacted the White House VA line.

Did I mention that the lawyer they appointed from the VA informed me that my power of attorney is worth "nothing" because it's the government!!!

Sickening....

PHONE your congresswoman.
Newspapers then. Kick up a stink.

OMG Tiny.. what a nightmare! I'm so sorry you are having to go through all this mess! I'm sure all the bounced checks are also expensive.

Tiny, isn't there a dedicated White House Veterans phone number now? I think you need to call it.

Is this someone fraudulently diverting dad's funds?

I'm all over it BarbBrooklyn. It doesn't appear that anyone is diverting Dad's funds. I was able to track down the lawyer's office that was assigned Dad's case, and they couldn't give me the name of anyone at the VA that I could speak to regarding the issue.

The pompous jerk seemed so proud that he had all of the "pertinent" information about where to send Dad's funds. He was WRONG!!! I demanded that he just hold on to the check until I can get to the bottom of this nonsense.

I get that there are dishonest people out there that misuse Veteran checks, but I'm not one of them. I would have been MORE than happy to fill out any needed paperwork, but somehow I got penalized because THEY had the wrong address.

It burns me up that very little effort was made to find me. They said the mail was never returned. That's most likely because the new occupant just threw away mail that wasn't addressed to them. It's mind boggling that we have such an advanced military but they can't track down an address. My phone number hasn't changed in 10 years. I NEVER received a call. Disgusting!

Tiny - federal governmental doesn’t recognize DPOAs. So dpoa a nonstarter for dealing with Social Security..... so SS goes Representative Payee route. Ditto for anything federal civil service. VA goes its fiduciary route.....

Once stuff settles, try to get it so that it’s no longer VA assigned fiduciary oversight but instead you become complete fiduciary.

Oh & the reason why, is apparently because POAs are viewed as a state created & state specific document. It’s also why the bigger banks that are in multiple states or nationwide totally do foot dragging on letting DPOAs even with clear financial power to do anything. And then bigger banks do the “we require a springing” document to attach to the DPOA as a cya.

Really for Anyone reading this, when it’s federal try to do anything first & foremost on line with your elder.

igloo... I WAS the fiduciary. They seemingly just snatched it away... without notice. I did the interviews, references, background check, and credit check. I came out with flying colors.

The issue is they couldn't get in contact with me (minimal effort on their part), and decided to make a major financial decision without me even knowing about it. Had I known that I needed to take action, I would have.

Is there something I can do to be proactive on my part in the future? God forbid the Federal Government actually have to WORK at anything. If I need to submit something yearly, FINE. JUST. LET. ME. KNOW.

...and I PREFER online communication. Are they seriously still sending out snail mail? I only check my physical mailbox twice a month.

Again... they claim to be so technologically advanced and can't get in touch with people. Email... text... heck!! Even a phone call.

I knew nothing and it has had ENORMOUS ramifications. I'm flabbergasted

Guess they won't reimburse me for the extra day off I had to take being on the phone with this stuff, and I'm STILL getting the run around. If I hear "We'll call you" one more time....

Tiny, my sister did the work for our mom's Aid and Attendance. She kept calling, getting nowhere. Seven months after application, someone told her that it was on hold because it was a "death in combat". She calmly told the man that all they had to do was look at his DOB .... to see that he was 80 when he passed....the man did his magic with the computer and the payments began....oy.

SS declared my MIL dead - she marched down there to tell them reports of her death were wrong. They got her resurrected for a month. It happened twice more. Fortunately, her doctor's office knew her and she was able to get medical care. But her Medicare payments had been stopped to her insurance company and it could've been serious had she needed hospital care (as they showed her with no Part B or D) .

I have no idea what the constituent service person at our congresswoman's office did to clear it up but it never happened again. The grandkids declared Gma was a zombie.

Well, the VA called me back to inform me that I have been permanently denied fiduciary privileges due to "misuse of funds". Apparently, if they can't get in touch with you, it's automatic misuse and I can't appeal.

The "official" lady (she kept saying ma'am the annoying, military way) on the phone stated that FROM XXXX (they always know the number) that I signed stated that I would notify the VA of a change of address. I THOUGHT I DID. All of the other facilities knew my address (so their computers don't communicate with each other???), but I happened to miss THEIR division.

She had no response when I challenged why they did not make more of an effort to contact me since I exceeded the 125 day grace period. She just kept repeating that I signed to submit paperwork every year... that they sent to the wrong address.

So, due to my "lack of responsibility", I've been punished and have to jump through even more hoops to make sure this gets handled. More paperwork, more calls, more time off work.

This is completely insane. The VA refuses to take any accountability, and I feel like such a failure. I honestly didn't know that I wasn't doing something I was supposed to be doing.

NOT A GOOD DAY

Tiny - what state are you in?

I'm apoplectic for you, Tiny.

Did it even cross their minds that they could have rung your Dad's facility and left a message for you there? There are a thousand and one ways they can reach a person when they want to.

Slugs, useless slugs, the lot of them. God rot 'em.

On the other hand... since they think they can do so much better... does this mean they'll also be paying all the bills in future? That would be nice.

That really stinks for you, Tiny. How can anyone- law firm or anyone- just assume that this is the way to go- now it’s your “new normal”, because of these people?
Then, this occurs in the middle of this relocation of your dad is doubly stinky (trying not to get censored).

“Misuse of funds”?  Me thinks this stemmed from last month when it was determined your father should not have been in Adult Day Care provided by the VA during your care call, am I correct? 

It’s not a coincidence,Ms Tiny....

Shane - omg I forgot about the day care. That created a report in & of itself. Then with the non reporting due to address snafu..... it looks suspect for fiduciary. So gets yanked.

Tiny - didn’t you deposit into dads account so he had $ to cover checks? That too could trigger an issue. As it looks like “income” and any income change must be reported....yada yada.... For my mom, the last month before filing for NH Medicaid, it was a flurry getting stuff moved through for spend down. & mom was going to be about $200.00 short, so I wrote a check to cover it & deposited into her checking account. She (me as her dpoa) got an employment questionnaire from Medicaid around month 4 in the process asking about her sources of income & employment. Did not occur to me that the $200 triggered the letter, so I went into a snarky what I thought funny lengthy rant on the questionnaire about the status on companies mom worked for in the 1940’s - 1960’s and when they ceased to exist (like Woolworths, Joske’s of Texas, etc.) The caseworker (laughing thankfully, he fondly remembered the Xmas pilgrimage to Joskes Winter Wonderland which everyone in So Texas did at some point) called me....it was about the $200. Oh well.....  Medicaid since its state, has boots on ground local caseworker to speak to. But I bet VA is like Medicare & NFIP, it’s all centralized federal document driven with tight timeframes. You rarely have one on one phone communication until it’s too late. 

You guys are absolutely right! The whole daycare debacle raised a flag in the system and they decided to take a closer look.

Well, I had to put all of that on the back burner and get Dad moved, but it appears that I made just enough noise with the right people. Once I explained that I would have gladly submitted paperwork had I known that I needed to and that I am more than happy to document every red cent I spend on Dad, there was a "miraculous" change of heart.

I received a call Friday from the Field Investigation Office Director who pretty much admitted that the person who did my initial fiduciary certification screwed up. The guy basically filled out the paperwork for me and told me to sign. He did not explain the ins and outs, penalties, ramifications at ALL!

He then stated that the person who should have contacted me when they couldn't reach me via mail reported that they contacted me but "couldn't recall" when she reached out or provide a phone number.

Soooo... now I have to do the entire process again... for two years!!!! Since the silly person who did my first assessment didn't clearly explain that I could not combine Dad's VA income with other money, I am basically doing to have to manually pull out what I did with it. Thankfully, the ALF bill exceeds his income, so that will be an easy one.

It's just a complete Pain in the ARSE to have to do this because THEY screwed up. This manager apologized profusely for how I was treated and admitted that he had no inclination at all that I was doing anything malicious.

BUT.... once this is over, I think I will let the silly government do it (at a fee, of course -- more money I have to shell out), just to avoid the hassle. If I could wring the Adult Day Care guy's neck I would. Because HE was dishonest (not letting me know that I was breaking a VA rule by using the Daycare benefit AND having dad in ALF), I'm paying the price.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

So sorry but finally you know what happened.