WHITE CITY, Ore. — Marne Mitchell comes from a military family, she even had relatives serve in the revolutionary and civil wars.
Blood clots forced her to give up her dream of active duty, so she decided to follow in her mom’s footsteps and work at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Office in White City. After five years as a dental assistant, Mitchell decided it was time for a change in 2015.
“Somebody from human resources came up to let me know that they had made a mistake in inputting numbers for retirement, the coding was wrong,” Mitchell said.
She said the error instantly deleted a year’s worth of her work history. Over the past four years, the Defense Finance and Account Service, also known as DFAS, which handles VA finances, said she owes the government money.
“The computer sent letters to my insurance company saying they paid me when I wasn’t working,” Mitchell said, “then the insurance company sent letters to the doctors’ offices, so it was a snowball effect that happened.”
DFAS said the money owed comes from things like insurance, retirement plans and salary overpayment—totaling over $20,000.
In August 2015, the VA SORCC Interim Director wrote Mitchell detailing the HR error at the VA She said they fixed the problem, Mitchell’s balances had been resolved and all remedy actions were complete, but then in September, more letters came in.
“Letters that threaten her savings accounts, wages being garnished, taking benefits from her,” said attorney David deVilleneuve, a trial attorney who says he’s dealt with issues like this before. He said if it wanted, the government could take the money out of anywhere, including military retirement accounts.
“When you get a letter from the government suggesting that you have money that belongs to the government you wake up every day worried that your bank accounts could disappear, your savings could disappear, your tax returns will never come,” deVilleneuve said.
DeVilleneuve said that’s what he and Mitchell are afraid of, all because of what they call a simple mistake. “We have correspondence from the government where they admit that this is a mistake that they created,” deVilleneuve said, “and it seems that on occasion, someone will make some efforts to fix the problem, but it isn’t getting fixed.”
“It isn’t getting done and four years later Marne’s still waking up every day wondering if her savings account’s gonna disappear or her benefits are gonna disappear,” deVilleneuve said.
Mitchell said since 2016 no more progress has been made. The last letter she received was in June of 2018. “If they could just stop and not make any more mistakes and let me move on, I would be so happy,” Mitchell said. Though both want it to stop, they’re not afraid of taking legal action.
“We are trying to convince the government to fix their own mistake and leave Marne alone,” deVilleneuve said. While she feels like things are at a standstill, Mitchell said she’s appreciative of the VA’s help. “I’m just looking forward to having this finished, settled, done,” Mitchell said, “so that I can with certainty, move on and know that I can finally put this behind me.”
We reached out to DFAS and the VA for comment. They both said they couldn’t talk about specific due to privacy but would look into it and try to help get a resolution.
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