Navy veteran David Bartholomew still doesn’t know exactly how the VA killed him. His benefits started to come back after he called KENS 5.
SAN ANTONIO — Deana Bartholomew was checking the mail on a Friday afternoon. She opened an unusual letter in the car and looked in horror at what it said.
According to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), her husband, David Bartholomew, was now dead
DFAS was “sincerely sorry to learn of the death of her husband.” The agency also needed to inform her of possible changes regarding his retirement pay.
Deana couldn’t believe the government said her husband was dead. She also didn’t know exactly how to tell him he was dead.
“I was very, very reluctant to share the letter with him,” she said. “I knew it was going to be something difficult for him.”
David Bartholomew was, of course, not dead and his wife did share the contents of the letter later that evening. He later told KENS 5 he was just thankful she knew it was a mistake.
“I can’t imagine her emotional state had there been one second that she thought this was real and I’m gone,” David Bartholomew said.
On Monday, the couple started calling both DFAS and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs trying to fix it.
Mr. Bartholomew said both agencies eventually confirmed that he was not, in fact, dead. Unfortunately, the agencies had already begun the process of killing the veteran and couldn’t stop it.
The next day, more that $3000 of retirement pay got yanked out of the veterans account and the family had to get a cash advance just to keep their account from going negative.
Now furious, Mr. Bartholomew and his wife called the government again.
“I got a ticket number! After all this money had gone out of my account!” Bartholomew said. “And she said it will take seven to ten business days before someone will even get back to you. Not that it will be fixed.”
The veteran told them that was unacceptable but there was nothing the VA representative could do. Meanwhile the family would have bills to pay at the start of February. They called KENS 5.
“The VA killed me physically, on paper, and DFAS has killed me financially!” Bartholomew said.
KENS 5 contacted the Department of Veterans Affairs and let them know we were airing a story on the mistake. We made it very clear the family needed their retirement pay to pay bills and gave the VA a few days to respond.
KENS 5 contacted the VA immediately on the Friday afternoon after the interview. It was a holiday weekend but the VA still confirmed they received needed information that next Monday, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A representative called the family on Tuesday.
“The lady was sympathetic. She was a veteran herself and she also seemed frustrated with the system that wouldn’t allow her to answer questions that she and the VA should be able to answer. They acknowledged their mistake,” David Bartholomew said.
Several thousand dollars returned to the family’s account the following day. It wasn’t the full amount the veteran was owed but it was enough to take care of bills. The family was assured the rest of the money would be returned as well.
Deana Bartholomew said the mistake was still unacceptable and she still had concerns. She wanted to know why the VA didn’t have a better process to fix this mistake quickly and worried what it will be like for the next veteran it happens to.
“I want there to be a pathway for that to be corrected by the organization that made the mistake. I want to make sure they don’t do this to someone again,” Deana said. “I want there to be a way that is apologetic, claims responsibility, and provides exactly what happened.”
The family said they still didn’t know exactly how this happened in the first place.
A spokeswoman from the VA provided KENS 5 the following response:
“We regret this mistake and have offered the family our deepest apologies. VA resumed Mr. Bartholomew’s benefits payments on Jan. 20 and will ensure he is issued any retroactive payments he is owed. The Houston VA Regional Office is conducting a review to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future to other Veterans.”
The family said they still want more answers before this issue is over. They are glad they got some of the money back to pay bills and they are glad they called KENS 5.
“It was frustrating that we can’t do this on our own, and that we had to call people like KENS 5, Andrew Moore, reporters, congressmen, to take action…. But we are glad those resources are available,” David Bartholomew said.
The family did reach out to the Office of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz about the issue. KENS 5 contacted the senator’s office but they declined to comment.
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