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Immense VA Claims Backlog Tagged 'Characteristic' A VA Claims Task Force that completed a top-to-bottom review
of the VA claims processing system has declared that workload crises and enormous case backlogs have become "an inherent
characteristic" at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Thus, veterans filing for disability compensation must wait months,
some even years, for resolution. VA officials who presented the report pledged to improve the system. VA secretary
Anthony Principi said, "President Bush and I are absolutely committed to getting to the core of the VA claims process
problems. Examples of the problem:
A backlog of more than 533,000 first-time claims keeps veterans waiting an average of six months for a decision. If
the veteran appeals the decision, the process can stretch for years.
As of August, more than 38,000 "substantive appeals" were pending at VA regional offices. Most had been there for more
than a year, and more than 18,000 go back to the early 1990s.
When the VA or a court rules on appeals and returns the cases to regional offices, they also wait. More than 31,000 are in
regional offices now and more than 10,000 have been there since before 2000.
Even the VA itself must wait lengthy periods to obtain veterans' records. Of the 56,000 backlogged requests at the
Veterans Benefits Administration's records center, 4,600 are more than a year old.
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