Saturday, June 20, 2009
Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to improve the system of processing benefits claims for veterans, and hiring thousands more adjusters, the Department of Veterans Affairs has almost a million unprocessed requests piling up on its desks. A check of the VA’s website by the Associated Press revealed the department has more than 722,000 claims, with another 172,000 on appeal, bringing the total to about 900,000. Only six months ago the total was 800,000.
Obama has promised the federal government will establish an improved electronic system for handling claims by 2012. Meanwhile, the VA has hired 4,200 new claims processors since 2007, but getting all of these new adjusters in place has been slowed by training that takes up to two years.
Wounded veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have to wait as long as four months for their claims to be processed, with appeals lasting a year and a half. The VA says new claims are up 13% over last year, in part because of rule changes allowing Vietnam vets exposed to Agent Orange to file for disability payments.
News of the paperwork congestion follows earlier reports of veterans and their survivors being cheated out of payments thanks to VA workers hiding, tampering with or destroying unprocessed claims.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Number of Unprocessed Veterans Claims Poised to Hit 1 Million (by Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press)
Hidden, Lost, and Unopened Benefits Letters at the VA (by Aaron Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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