ST. LOUIS — New information about one of the most significant You Paid For It Reports of the year. It’s our report on the Veterans Administration not paying an army veteran his pension check for five months. His wife called the You Paid For It team when she couldn’t get through to VA for help. He will now get back pay in addition to monthly checks going forward.
Veteran Michael Martin Kovac wasn’t able to talk to us because of his medical condition. His wife, Val, did talk to us in an emotional interview. But the day after the first story aired, we were still waiting for action from VA.
Val was waiting too. Investigator Elliott Davis went back to interview Val Kovac on Tuesday. He asked her if she had heard from the VA.
”No, not at all, I checked the voice messages. The ones that are saved and the ones that are new today. There’s nothing on there from them,” said Kovac
Elliott Davis called US Senator Eric Schmitt for help on this deal. The senator had a lot of experience dealing with the VA.
Senator Schmitt has a history of dealing with VA. His office worked over 150 military/veteran and veteran records cases over the past year. Schmitt’s office successfully closed just under 140 of the cases while working on the rest. His office said in a statement that part of his job is “To fight for veterans who are not receiving benefits.”
The VA sent this statement to Elliott Davis:
“Thank you for advocating for Mr. Kovac and letting us know about these delayed payments. Fortunately, we can confirm that Mr. Kovac’s benefits have been reinstated. We are reaching out to the Kovac family and are investigating to learn what happened. We’d like to apologize to Mr. and Mrs. Kovac for this unfortunate situation and thank him for his service.”
