Veterans’ late checks in mail

The VA checks are in the mail. By today, they should actually be in the mailbox for hundreds of Spokane-area veterans.

An unknown number of Veterans Affairs disability checks with Spokane-area addresses went astray and didn’t arrive as expected this month. But a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Spokane said the checks that should have been in veterans’ hands Tuesday are expected to arrive today.

A tray of envelopes carrying checks with ZIP codes beginning 992 was sent from a processing facility in Austin, Texas, to a postal station in Western Washington, said Steve Rorie, acting manager of the Postal Service’s consumer affairs office in Spokane.

A tray can hold as many as 500 envelopes, but the Postal Service isn’t sure whether this tray was full, Rorie said. The envelopes were being flown to Spokane on Thursday to help ensure they are delivered by today.

Frank Thompson, of the Veterans Assistance Office, said that office had received at least a dozen phone calls, and probably an equal number of walk-in inquiries from vets or their dependents who didn’t receive their disability checks on schedule.

“For a lot of them, that’s their only income each month,” Thompson said.

Many veterans receive their payments by direct deposit, which wasn’t affected by the foul-up. But some veterans can’t use direct deposit because they don’t have bank accounts, Thompson said, and others are more comfortable getting a check.

VA checks are scheduled for delivery the first day of each month. By Wednesday, local postal authorities knew something was wrong because veterans were calling to ask where their checks were and letter carriers noticed that the checks they normally deliver weren’t there.

While an individual envelope can get misrouted from time to time, Rorie said it is rare that a whole tray would go to the wrong area. “I can’t really remember anything this large,” he said.