MS Army veteran says the VA has shorted her pay for over two years. She wants her money
For the longest, Harriet “Elva” Pflug’s life ran on autopilot.
COVID almost killed her in the summer of 2020 and left her with serious health problems. The Army veteran’s disability checks were deposited into her bank account and the bills went out on autopay.
So she didn’t notice until February 2024 that her monthly check — from four years of service in the 1990s — did not include the annual cost of living increase to which she was entitled.
She notified Veterans Affairs immediately, calling the agency’s hotline for veterans. The gentleman with whom she spoke, she said, discovered that she didn’t receive a COLA in 2023, either. “We need to file a claim to get this corrected,” he told her.
That sounded simple enough.
A year later, she’s still waiting for the correction. This is the third year she’s gone without a cost of living increase.
“I talk to them almost every month trying to find out why this isn’t getting done,” Pflug told the Sun Herald. “They just tell me its in review and they can’t tell me anymore than that.”
Army veteran served in South Korea
At a loss, Pflug recently contacted the Sun Herald. She wrote in a message: “I have been trying for a year to get my pay corrected due to not receiving the COLA increase for 2023, 2024, and 2025. I am owed $10,735.65 in back pay and there is $527.07 being added to that total every month.”
Pflug loved serving in the military. She spent two years conducting aerial surveillance from the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea.
She tracked North Korean troops and weapons, including weapons of mass destruction. She felt like she was helping to protect her country.
When she returned to the states, she trained other members of the military. Pflug left the Army in 1996, only because the man she was married to at the time did not want to re-enlist. From there, she said, she held a number of jobs, including as a revenue officer for the Internal Revenue Service.
More recently, she has retired and settled in Lucedale with her current husband and son. She receives a service-related disability check because of injuries that she suffered in South Korea.
Inflation outpaces monthly pay
Her monthly disability check isn’t keeping up with inflation. She had hoped the problem would be straightened out by now.
After contacting the VA, she sent the agency a list of her monthly payments from December 2022 to January 2024. They sent her back the same list almost six months later. She called, she said, and learned the VA had completed an audit of her pay rather than looking into her complaint about the missing COLA.
Ezell’s office got involved around this time, in July 2024, submitting a congressional inquiry to the VA. On Aug. 1, his office sent her an update. The VA told Ezell’s offices: “Mrs. Pflug’s claim is pending review. Once the review has been completed, Mrs. Pflug will be notified.”
In January, the VA told Ezell’s office there is a backlog of “casework inquiries” and the agency is processing them in the order received.
Pflug hopes the problem gets straightened out soon, as she’s missing hundreds of dollars each month.
“We still haven’t heard anything,” she said. “I feel like they are just treating our veterans terribly. When you have a problem like this, it shouldn’t be this difficult to get your paycheck fixed.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
