VFW Calls VA Claims Process Broken

In testimony March 6 before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees, the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars declared the claims processing system at the Department of Veterans Affairs broken. Commander Gary Kurpius, of Anchorage, Alaska, said it was because VA has an unmanageable backlog of more than 800,000 claims, that it takes a half year for a claims rating, and that more than 100,000 claims are decided wrongly every year, or one in every eight claims. “It is unacceptable, because each delay and every wrong decision have real human costs,” he said. “Fixing the Veterans Benefits Administration is important because the VBA is the gateway to all of VA. No disabled veteran should have to wait for benefits many of them need to care for themselves and their families.”