VA Refuses to Recognize Veteran’s Wife and Child

[William769]

The Department of Veterans Affairs has frozen the disabled veteran’s benefits until she pays back the full amount the VA mistakenly awarded for her wife and child.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has ordered an Iraq war veteran to pay back federal benefits she earned for her wife and child, claiming that she was issued them by mistake, since her home state of Texas does not recognize her marriage.

After serving in the military for five years, including during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Melissa Perkins-Fercha left active duty and received a 50 percent disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs, reports LGBT organization the American Military Partner Association. Perkins-Fercha and her wife traveled to Washington to legally marry in 2012, and in 2014, her wife gave birth to the couple’s daughter in El Paso, Texas. Shortly thereafter, Perkins-Fercha added her wife and daughter as dependents on her VA benefits plan, according to AMPA.

In response, the VA sent a letter informing Perkins-Fercha that it could not legally add her wife and child as dependents because the couple lived in Texas, which does not recognize same-sex marriages. But the VA apparently failed to remove the dependents from Perkins-Fercha’s record, meaning the benefits she received included compensation for her wife and child, according to AMPA.

Perkins-Fercha twice appealed the VA’s denial of her family, but it wasn’t until this month that she received another letter informing her that all of her disability benefits would be withheld until the compensation which the VA mistakenly overpaid was “paid back in full,” reports AMPA.

http://www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2015/03/01/va-refuses-recognize-veteran-s-wife-and-child

[shenmue]

1. Sue the hell out of these losers

[atreides1]

2. The VA continues to f**k up!

If the law the VA is using has already been struck down by the SCOTUS, then this must be a case of some idiot who doesn't have the brains to dig a latrine...in a position that they are completely unqualified to hold.

The letter has a signature of the petty little paper pusher who can't read...why not publicize his/her name as the person who continues to follow a law that is no longer in effect?

[liberalhistorian]

3. I thought federal law superceded

state law so that it wouldn't matter what Texas law was, only that federal law recognizes same-sex marriages for benefits purposes so that the VA, which is federal, should have recognized and paid benefits for her family as well? Or am I completely off-track here?

Either way, I've never understood government entities requiring repayment of benefits mistakenly paid to recipients (I'm looking at YOU, Social Security Administration, since you're going after adults for benefits overpaid to them as CHILDREN) when it was the entity's mistake in the first place, and not the mistake of the recipient or fraud on the recipient's part.

[Scuba]

4. Sounds like the work of one bigoted asswipe.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

8. The problem is that this part of the law hasn't been overturned nationwide n/t

[SickOfTheOnePct]

5. Hopefully the lawsuit that has been filed will end this discrimiation

But that does her little good right now since her benefits are frozen. Completely unacceptable.

[William769]

6. ...

[SickOfTheOnePct]

7. This is really a perfect thing to resolve through crowdsourcing

Worst case, it would take around $2000 to pay back what has been deemed "overpayment", then she could at least be getting her benefit checks while this goes through the courts. When she wins, she'll get all of this in back pay.

[daleanime]

9. ........

[kestrel91316]

10. Shameful

[salib]

11. Probably one or more of those Dubya picks who were moved into the civil service system

So they could gum up the works for a generation.

We really need to fix that.

[gregcrawford]

12. Why would anyone volutarily live...

... in that cesspool of malice and bigotry? I've been to Texas several times, and every time I have either experienced or witnessed an ugly incident that made me glad to get out of there. I know there are good people in Texas, but they are vastly outnumbered by Jesus freaks who defile His very name, psychotic bigots who would LOVE to revive lynching, and oily little weasels like Ted Cruz who crave dominion over the lives of others. Fence it off and let them eat each other.

[Unknown Beatle]

17. Yeah right!

I live in Texas and it's obvious you weren't around long enough to experience the wonderful and liberal people that live here. Dallas, Houston, El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, Laredo, Corpus Christie, and a few other counties are blue with fantastic progressive people.

Every state that I've been to has people like you mention, but they're the minority. It's the politics that suck, not the people that live in those states.

[hobbit709]

28. And what state do you live in where there are NONE of the people you describe?

NO state I've ever been in doesn't have a fair percentage of the idiots.

[dolphinsandtuna]

13. can't the Prez

tell the VA to hop to fixing this? Does he not have the authority as commander in chief? I thought federal employees for such benefits.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

15. No, I don't think the President can tell the VA to break the law n/t

[marym625]

14. Can't we just give Texas to Mexico?

How unbelievable. This is horrendous. I never understood how the military is not part of the federal coverage for marriage equality. This should never have happened.

Shame on the military. Shame on Texas

[SickOfTheOnePct]

16. VA and DoD are two completely separate departments

although they do coordinate closely in some areas.

[marym625]

18. Yes, I understand that

But the VA is for military, which is federal. Even if the benefits come from the state, and I don't know if they do or not, it's in complete opposition to federal law. It sucks. It's wrong.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

19. The benefits are all federal, not state

but the law as it currently exists prohibits the payments in this case. I agree, it's wrong and needs to be rectified, but the fact that the military goes by one set of rules and the VA another set of rules isn't unusual.

[marym625]

20. I remember when this first came up

And the states were fighting federal law. It makes zero sense that all federal programs, etc are supposed to recognize a legally married couple but not the VA. Hell, the IRS does

Maybe this will end up being a test case. Doesn't help this family now, though

[sheshe2]

21. Nothing angers me more

“Nothing angers me more than to find out a veteran is being denied earned veterans benefits and compensation for the sole reason they live in a state that does not respect their marriage or family,” said AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack. “No veteran should be treated like this. Melissa put her life on the line for our country, and now our country is telling her that her family doesn’t count just because her spouse happens to be the same sex.”

Melissa Perkins-Fercha

It's time to make Texas a Marriage Equality State. It's time to turn her purple at the very least.

Thanks for posting this William.

[freshwest]

22. What BS. She didn't just serve for the State of TN, but the whole country!

[William769]

26. True but she loved another woman.

[mythology]

23. I guess I don't understand why the VA's position is legal

They are legally married, the section of the law being used to deny the benefits has been struck down, so what's the hold up? I wish the article had gone into that.

That said, this is obviously stupid and hopefully the Supreme Court settles this correctly in the upcoming term, even if it will be an imposition on this family and many others (including couples who may suffer from a death or other irreversible harm while the Supreme Court dilly-dallies on the subject because some bigots can't get over the fact that there is not only no harm in allowing same-sex marriage there are many benefits to allowing it.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

24. Because that part of the law hasn't been struck down

except in the 9th Circuit...doesn't apply to TX.

***edited: Not even the 9th Circuit...struck down by a federal judge in Los Angeles. Needs to be struck down everywhere, or by SCOTUS so that this discrimination ends.

[madokie]

25. This homophobia is getting out of hand

They'll all tell you well it says so in the bible so its a sin and must be stamped out or whatever the fuck their little minds can come up with. I'm a straight guy with a friend who've been my friend since he was born and it was obvious that he was gay early on. He didn't make a choice I know that, its just the way he was wired so homophobic assholes leave people like him alone. Life is tough for all of us without having to single out a group to make it even tougher for them. Then they tell me how good of a christian they are. Yes I know these kind

[nomorenomore08]

27. Excellent post.