The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials are warning about an uptick in scam attempts targeting veterans’ pensions that could result in serious financial problems for elderly or infirm veterans.

“Fraudsters are getting smarter, more deliberate and more engaged. They’re getting better,” said Charles Tapp II, chief financial officer for the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA).

“We are seeing a lot more instances where veterans — particularly seniors — are getting fraudulent calls … So we certainly are making our senior veterans more aware about pension poaching.”

Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission reported that about 2.8 million Americans filed fraud complaints in 2021, the most on record. The agency estimated that consumers lost more than $5.8 billion to scams last year.

VA officials said older veterans with military pensions or other regular department payouts can be attractive targets for would-be-thieves.

Pension theft can occur when an outside party — a stranger or someone known to a veteran, such as a caregiver — convinces veterans to shift their payouts to a new bank account or a separate financial product (annuities or trusts, for example), preventing them from accessing the money.

Tapp said when veterans’ bank accounts are changed without explanation, it triggers an internal check within VA to ensure that fraud is not occurring. But other theft schemes are more difficult to detect, and may only be corrected after months of malfeasance have already occurred.

Did You Know?

Did you know commissary customers on or near eight military installations in the U.S. will be able to test out a new doorstep delivery service scheduled to start June 1, 2022? The Defense Commissary Agency awarded contracts to two veteran-owned companies on April 14 for delivery services. From April 17 through May 31, the contractors will integrate and test their technology with the commissary agency’s eCommerce system. The doorstep delivery starts June 1, 2022 and the contracts for the pilot program run for 90 days, through August 30, 2022 according to contract documents.

State Benefits

Assemblyman James C. Ramos has proposed a Bill that will assist veterans.

The Bill will make both veterans retirement pay, and survivor benefits exempt from state income tax in California by excluding both from gross income. This would apply for taxable years between January 1, 2023, and December 1, 2033.

Under current Bill language a “qualified” veteran is someone over the age of 60.

If passed only veterans who are 60 years and older will have their retirement benefits exempt from state income tax.

A veteran under the age of 60 will pay income tax on retirement benefits until they turn 60.

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Did You Know?

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