VA Claims Processing Crunch Looms
The National Security Archive, a nonpartisan research organization affiliated with George Washington University, has obtained figures about claims made by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan that portend an inundation of the VA claims system. According to the figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, less that 32 percent of veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War have filed disability claims over 15 years, while five years into the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns, 27 percent of newly discharged veterans already have filed nearly 153,000 claims. The current deluge of claims is adding to a large existing backlog. To counter this, Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, proposed earlier this year to hire 200 more claims adjudicators and provide $400,000 for training The VA has reduced its average processing time for initial benefits to 174 days, but the two wars continue to increase claims. Visit www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/index.html.
