Another debt to pay

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By Barb Ickes | Thursday, February 14, 2008 12:04 AM CST | () comments

Dan Whiting gave a year of his life to serve his country in the war in Iraq.

And now he’s fighting his own government.

Whiting wasn’t even out of high school when he enlisted in the Army in 2002. After graduating from United Township in 2003, he headed for basic training in field artillery at Fort Sill, Okla.

After basic he went to Western Illinois University, finished a semester and worked through the summer. In the fall of 2004, he signed up for another semester at WIU. Seven days after classes started, his unit was notified that it was being deployed.

“They didn’t need field artillery people, so his unit was sent in October to Fort Dix, N.J., and retrained as military police,” said his mother, Donna Whiting.

About a month after the retraining started, a letter arrived at Whiting’s parents’ house in East Moline. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was writing to say that the soldier owed the government $221.99 because he received education benefits to attend WIU and then dropped out.

When Whiting’s parents contacted the VA and explained that their son couldn’t possibly finish his semester at Western because he was deployed to Iraq, the agency seemed satisfied. Who could argue the impossibility of being in Macomb, Ill., and Baghdad, Iraq, at the same time?

But it wasn’t over.

In January, three years and three months after being told he owed the government for dropping out of college, another letter arrived at the Whiting house. This time, the Department of the Treasury was writing to say that Whiting owes the government $872.30, which includes penalties from the earlier debt, along with another charge for education benefits.

An agency official explained that Whiting was paid $550 for a college benefit in March 2005. The problem is that he was serving in Iraq at that time. He never was notified of receiving any benefit and he most certainly wasn’t enrolled in college.

Even more troubling, eight days after getting the letter from the Treasury Department, Whiting got a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs, warning him that he had only 30 days to appeal the declaration of debt or the matter would be turned over to the Treasury. The letter was written 43 days prior.

The case already was in Treasury’s hands. But the government went one better for its soldier. Whiting’s inexplicable $872.30 bill was turned over to a collections agency.

Donna and Craig Whiting have spent the past several weeks going to bat for their son, 23, who is finishing a law enforcement degree at WIU. With his life experience limited so far to soldiering and schooling, he needs his parents’ help.

They’ve contacted the office of U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., and have their fingers crossed for some progress there. The people in Hare’s office are doing all they can and filed an inquiry into the matter Feb. 1. There has been no response.

Meanwhile, Whiting’s credit rating could be in peril. He expects that the government will take what money he has coming back to him in income taxes. His parents wonder how many more of our soldiers are having the same problem, and they have little faith that the government’s confusion over their son will ever end.

They have good reason.

Shortly before receiving the letters from the Treasury Department and the collection agency, the Whitings received another, unrelated bill from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This one was to notify the soldier that he owed $143.43 for “overpayment on education.”

Since he was enrolled in college at the time, his parents presumed the bill was legitimate and sent a check. Sixteen days later, another letter from the VA arrived. It explained that a check was being issued to Whiting in the amount of $143.43 for “over billing.”

After nearly a full day of investigating the case Wednesday, a public affairs specialist for the Veterans Benefits Administration in Chicago had some answers. Sort of.

“Young Mr. Whiting still does, indeed, owe $671,” Ryan Steinbach began.

The problem, he said, is that Whiting filed an electronic report, claiming all the way until January of 2005 that he was still a student, even though he’d been part-time for a couple of months and withdrew altogether in October 2004.

The VA relies on an honor system in verifying soldiers’ college enrollment until eventually contacting colleges to confirm their semester hours. That’s when the agency discovered it had overpaid Whiting, Steinbach said.

But Dan Whiting said that’s not possible. For one thing, students have to have a schedule from WIU to verify and send to the VA. Since he withdrew in October, he would have had no schedule to verify in November, December or January.

Besides, in January, he was in Kuwait and nowhere near a computer. He doesn’t recall verifying anything with the VA while in training at Fort Dix in the three months before that.

“Their explanation makes no sense,” he said.

Asked why it took more than three years for the VA to notify Whiting of the debt and why his notice of a right to appeal arrived after the 30-day appeal period ended, Steinbach acknowledged an error.

“That is where the slip-up is,” he said. “That is the glitch.”

Shouldn’t he get the 30-day appeal period back?

“He can still contact us,” Steinbach said. “That glitch is on us.”

But when Whiting tried early this week, the VA told him the matter was out of its hands. And none of the claims of self-verification ever was explained to Whiting or his parents in as many as a dozen phone calls since January.

“I don’t know why it wasn’t explained,” Steinbach said. “They were probably calling Debt Management, and they don’t know why they’re collecting debt in Debt Management, only what is due.”

Speaking of which, how did the balance due get from $872.30 early this week to $671 on Wednesday?

“Part of the money has been reclaimed,” he said. “I’m not sure how. They might have withheld it from his current benefits.”

And what about that $143.43 that his parents sent a few weeks ago?

“That must be concurrent with his current benefits,” he said. “It must have been an accounting error.”

The Whitings’ frustration is understandable. Some underlying resentment needs more explaining.

“It’s so important for the public to understand that our returning young men and women were proud to do their duty and simply want to return to their lives with as much normalcy as possible, whether it’s back to their jobs or back to their studies,” Craig Whiting said of his son and others. “This type of problem merely adds stress to problems they already are encountering, and this type of problem simply shouldn’t occur.”

Dan Whiting agrees the confusion with the government is stressful but said he has no regrets. He’s grateful to the military for his college benefits and for the experience he got in Iraq.

“It’s just been a huge inconvenience, and it can wear on you,” he said. “It’s definitely frustrating, and it’s hard to have that hanging over my head.

“I appreciate that my parents are trying to help me. I wish they didn’t have to.”

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.