Payment of benefits by check; delivery

§ 3020. Payment of benefits by check; delivery (a) Monetary benefits under laws administered by the Veterans’ Administration shall be paid by checks drawn, pursuant to certification by the Administrator, in such form as to protect the United States against loss, and payable by the Treasurer of the United States. Such checks shall be payable without separate vouchers or receipts except in any case in which the Administrator may consider a voucher necessary for the protection of the Government. Such checks shall be transmitted by mail to the payee thereof at his last known address and, if he has moved and filed a regular change of address notice with the Post Office Department, shall be forwarded to him. The envelope or cover of each such check shall bear on the face thereof 72 Stat. 1228the following notice: “POSTMASTER: PLEASE FORWARD if addressee has moved and filed a regular change-of-address notice. If addressee is deceased, return the letter with date of death, if known.” (b) Postmasters, delivery clerks, letter carriers, and all other postal employees are prohibited from delivering any mail addressed by the United States and containing any such check to any person whomsoever if he has died or in the case of a widow, if the postal employee believes that she has remarried (unless the mail is addressed to her in the name she has acquired by her remarriage). The preceding sentence shall apply in the case of checks in payment of benefits other than pension, compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, and insurance, only insofar as the Administrator deems it necessary to protect the United States against loss. (c) Whenever mail is not delivered because of the prohibition of subsection (b), such mail shall be returned forthwith by the post-master with a statement of the reason for so doing, and if because of death or remarriage, the date thereof, if known. Checks returned under this subsection because of death or remarriage shall be canceled.