WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Department of Veterans Affairs cut a local veteran’s disability check because she was working a full-time job.
But that veteran told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray that she’s never even heard of the town where the job was, let alone worked there.
The company even reached out to the federal government to say she never worked there.
“I’ve already lost a vehicle,” Jasmina Covington, of Warner Robins, said.
Her monthly VA benefit checks have been cut in half from $4,000 to $1,900.
The Navy veteran said she can’t keep up with bills.
“Now, I got to decide am I going to buy groceries this month or I’m going to keep the water and the lights on. Like it’s a constant battle,” Covington said.
The VA cut the former 100% disabled vet’s benefits because government records show she earned $57,947 in 2023 at a packaging company called West Rock in Duluth, some 120 miles from her Warner Robins home.
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“I’ve never been to Duluth. I’ve never met anybody from Duluth,” Covington said.
Covington even got the human resources department at West Rock to send the VA a letter confirming she was not an employee.
Channel 2 Action News Investigates reported on the same thing happening this spring to other veterans
The VA told Roosevelt Smith his benefits were being cut for working at a diner he’d never heard of.
“It’s hard to hold back tears, man. It’s hard to hold back,” Smith said.
Virginia Franklin was told she made six figures last year, but she hasn’t worked since 2004.
“It said I didn’t report my earnings. I’m like, ‘I didn’t generate any earnings,’” Franklin said.
Smith and Franklin had their benefits restored after Channel 2 Action News got involved.
Covington has appealed the benefits cut, but so far has gotten nowhere with getting this resolved.
“I know I did nothing wrong. And others haven’t done anything wrong. And now they, all of us, are potentially at risk of losing the little bit that we do have, and it’s not fair,” Covington said.
Gray reached out to the Department of Veterans Affairs about this case. A spokesperson told him that because of the government shutdown, they can’t look into this right now, but will get it to their benefits department to investigate when the shutdown ends.
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