White Paper for Non-sub change for VA Form 24-0296 and 24-0296a

WHITE PAPER FOR NONSUBSTANTIVE

CHANGE TO VA FORM 24‑0296 and 24-0296a

International and Direct Deposit Enrollment

(2900-0564)

Issue

The Salt Lake City Incident team and Muskogee Direct Deposit unit wanted to prevent employee error, potential fraud or unauthorized changes that could come from use of the VA form 24-0269 in its current state. So, they requested that the VA form 24-0269 be revised.

Background

The Salt Lake City Incident team and Muskogee Direct Deposit unit have collaborated and requested a change to VA form 24-0296 to prevent potential fraud or unauthorized changes that could come from use of this form in the current state. Currently, the form can be submitted by a veteran, an apportionee, surviving member or members of the Veteran's family so having two separate boxes identifying the veteran information versus the beneficiary information would be very helpful.

Key Points

Here are some key points in reference to the form:

• A beneficiary can be different from the Veteran 

• Currently, the form only asks for beneficiary information. Adding the address information for the beneficiary is a good idea which would be different from the Veteran’s information unless it is the Veteran whose DDEFT information is being updated.

• The forms can be submitted by/for an apportionee; it could also be submitted for a surviving member of the Veteran’s family. 

• Multiple members of a Veteran’s family could be receiving DIC payments at the same time.  If their record was not established appropriately in SHARE/BDN, it may be difficult to identify them. However, clarifying Veteran versus beneficiary information on VA form 24-0296 would be helpful as the form currently only has a box for beneficiary information.

Recommendation

It was recommended that both VA form 24-0296 and 24-0296A be revised to include a box for the Veteran’s information and a box for the beneficiary’s information. Also, the signature block would be updated to just say “signature”. This would clear up any confusion for the person filling out the form and they would know exactly what sections of the form to fill out.

Also, the two forms would be revised to be OCR compliant which is the new requirement for VA forms.