Noteboom The Law Firm

Veteran Uses Twitter to Collect Deserved Benefits

April 22, 2010 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has come under a lot of scrutiny over the last year for their poor handling of benefits owed under the Post-9/11 GI Bill and their inefficient processing system. The Post-9/11 GI Bill provides admirable benefits to veterans and should not require veterans to fight a battle to use them.  

One veteran, Justin Herman, reached his limit of tolerance when a series of VA mistakes thwarted his plan to collect his owed educational benefits. Herman did what soldiers are trained to do: he formed a plan of attack and drove on full steam ahead. Herman began using Twitter to broadcast updates of his personal battle with the VA.  

This all started when Herman's educational benefits check failed to appear in his bank account. Numerous calls to the VA resulted in listening to a recording telling him to call back later. The VA's processing of educational benefits claims was so poor, they set up a hotline to answer veterans' questions. The hotline, though, was left unstaffed so office workers could be utilized for other tasks.

Herman eventually discovered his direct deposit check was being mailed, in paper form, to his parent's house. Following his attempt to correct this, his benefit checks were then deposited into someone else's bank account. When Herman eventually spoke to a VA representative, he was told resolution would take several weeks.

April 5^th began Herman's campaign to collect his benefits. He began using Twitter to relay every conversation had with a VA representative as well as posting them to the VA's Twitter page. What followed astounded Herman; Veterans and families of veterans began tweeting about comparable problems. In the end, thousands of tweets were being posted all focusing on the same issue as Herman: not only the problems collecting benefits, but the impossibility of dealing with the VA.

Herman's issues were resolved once he was in touch with the Deputy Director of Educational Benefits at the VA. His tweets eventually came to the attention to the White House Appointed Special Assistant for the VA as well as the VA's director of New Media, among others. Herman has been invited to discuss his complaints with the staff of the U.S. Senate. Hopefully they will take notes and correct the system. Veterans should not be forced to fight wars against the VA once their term of service is over.