Critics rip VA for increased claims backlog - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Critics rip VA for increased claims backlog

The number of veterans’ disability claims taking more than four months to complete has doubled, prompting criticism from veterans and Congress that the Veterans Affairs Department failed to prepare for a rise in cases it knew was coming.

“Without question, I believe that the VA disability claims system is broken,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said Wednesday.

The number of claims that take more than 125 days to decide has gone from 200,000 a year ago to 450,000 today, according to administration budget documents. As a result, veterans must wait even longer to receive payments for disabilities.

The VA says the delays are due in part to a generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with more complex claims, and a decision two years ago to expand compensation for Agent Orange-related illnesses. Claims also increase in a poor economy.

But veteran groups and Murray say the VA was aware that claims would rise.

“The explosion in the claims backlog is another predictable, preventable insult to thousands of veterans of all generations,” says Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America.

It now takes the VA six months on average to process each compensation demand for illnesses or injuries. And the delay will reach an eight-month average next year, according to documents.

The VA says it has added staff and expanded automated record keeping but is dealing with an unprecedented amount of work.

“I think the disability determination system does not deliver decisions in as timely and uncomplicated a manner as people would like,” said Tom Pamperin, VA undersecretary for policy.

An increase was predicted by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki in 2009 when he expanded the number of illnesses which could be linked to Agent Orange.

The total number of pending claims for compensation has grown from 448,000 last April to 756,000 today.

“The VA knew that more Agent Orange claims would be coming in but the claims have still overwhelmed the new case workers that Congress provided funding to hire,” Murray said during a confirmation hearing for a new VA benefits chief.

The VA added 3,000 claims processors last year, for a total of 14,000. But Pamperin says the work has been more labor-intensive than expected.

“We are working with a relatively inexperienced work force. They make mistakes,” he says.

Murray described a visit to a Seattle claims office where it took nine months to process a claim from a terminally ill veteran. He died three days before the case was resolved, she said.