NEW BRAUNFELS, TX — A New Braunfels woman is fighting an expensive battle, with thousands of dollars on the line.
Teresa Gonzales is a US Army Veteran, and one government agency is accusing her of not paying for her veteran benefits.
She has the receipts that say otherwise.
Gonzales has gone back and forth with the Defense Financial Accounting Service (DFAS) for almost 7 months. The agency claims she owes more than $7,000 for benefits she’s paid every month for the past seven years.
Now she wants to know where her money is going.
“$7,639.86 outstanding SBP premiums will be withheld from the annuity payment until unpaid SBP premiums are paid in full,” Gonzales read from a letter she received from DFAS.
“I have been given multiple reasons,” she explained. “Maybe you’re sending it to the wrong place. Maybe it just hasn’t been put in the right account. Maybe just different reasons.”
An October 10th letter said Gonzales is behind on payments for the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP). It’s an equivalent of life insurance for civilians and she’s depending on it; especially for her 22-year-old daughter who lives with disabilities.
“If something happened to me today, my family would not be paid — even though I have proof,” Gonzales explained.
She requested an audit back in April to get a full breakdown of the alleged missing payments. According to that audit, she’s only made 21 payments since September of 2018.
Gonzales shared copies of the checks she paid with, they show the exact opposite. They also been cashed.
“What’s happening to that money?,” she asked. “Why am I going back seven years all of a sudden, and I have to prove that I paid money seven years ago…where was that money seven years ago?”
DFAS asked her to submit proof. She printed out copies of checks for each payment she’s made each month since September of 2018.
“We took and uploaded the copies to my personal file at DFAS and we sent in hard copies. I called about the upload. They couldn’t find the upload,” the veteran said.
We reached out to DFAS both via email and over the phone.
“I’ll take a look at your query,” Steve Burghardt said over the phone. “We’ll see what we’re gonna be able to do.”
“We don’t really have anything we can do about it,” Gonzales said, adding her feelings of helplessness. “What I want is resolution.”
She said she refuses to pay the balances DFAS is asking for, saying she’ll prepare for a legal battle if it comes to that.