VA has announced that VA Debt Management Center (DMC) debt collection practices have resumed as of October 1, 2021 for benefits overpayments and copayments that were deferred or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

VA automatically deferred collection on VBA benefit debts created on or after April 6, 2020, through September 30, 2021, to provide relief from the COVID-19 pandemic. Benefit debts created prior to April 6, 2020 had collection deferred upon request. VA also paused all collection activity on debts under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Treasury until September 30, 2021.

Now that debt collections have resumed, VA plans to send debt notification letters to all affected veterans with repayment and relief options in order to notify them of the resumption. Relief options are listed below.

• Repayment plan. You can request a repayment plan. This will allow you to repay the debt in smaller monthly amounts over time.

• Compromise offer. If you don’t think you can repay the full debt even over time, you can request a compromise offer. This means you offer a lesser one-time lump sum amount as full payment of the debt. If we accept your offer, you’ll have to pay the one-time amount within 30 days.

• Waiver. If you don’t think you can repay the debt, you can request a debt waiver. This means you ask us to forgive (or “waive”) all or part of the debt. If your request is accepted, you won’t have to pay the amount waived.

• Temporary hardship suspension. If you need financial relief after a natural disaster or other situation, you can ask to temporarily pause debt collection.

Anyone having questions may contact Jerry Seiner, Charles Mix County Veterans Service Officer, at 605-487-7691 or by cell at 605- 481-1338. Office hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday and 8:00 a.m. until noon on Wednesday.