| VA'S VETERANS' CLAIMS BACKLOG
JUMPS 13% Since the
beginning of 2009, VA's backlog of veterans' benefits claims
ballooned by 108,000 to stand at 916,000.
by Larry Scott, VA Watchdog
dot Org
This will be short and
not-so-sweet.
According to the
Monday
Morning Workload Report (MMWR) of the Veterans' Benefits
Administration dated January 5, 2009, the backlog for veterans'
benefits claims stood at 808,607. Report is here ...
http://www.vba.va.gov/REPORTS/mmwr/2009/010509.xls
The same report for May 11, 2009
shows the backlog at 916,456. That report is here ...
http://www.vba.va.gov/REPORTS/mmwr/2009/051109.xls
 This
is an increase of nearly 108,000 claims in the backlog in just a
bit over four months ... an increase of 13.3%.
As pointed out by Paul Sullivan
of Veterans for Common Sense (VCS),
at this rate the backlog will go past one million by September,
2009 and jump to more than 1.1 million when we hit 2010.
What is interesting is that when
confronted with this information, VBA claims the MMWR figures are
inaccurate. When asked for better information ... they go
silent.
Do these two reports from the
Government Accountability Office (GAO)
ring a bell?
Veterans'
Disability Benefits: Claims
Processing Challenges Persist, while VA Continues to Take Steps
to Address Them
GAO-08-473T February
14, 2008
Summary (HTML)
Highlights Page (PDF) Full
Report (PDF, 18 pages) Accessible
Text
Veterans' Benefits:
Increased Focus on Evaluation and Accountability Would Enhance
Training and Performance Management for Claims Processors
GAO-08-561 May 27,
2008
Summary (HTML)
Highlights Page (PDF) Full
Report (PDF, 64 pages) Accessible
Text
Secretary Shinseki, are you
reading this?
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ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: I'm
sure VBA has some poor excuse for this huge increase in the
backlog. Maybe they'll blame VA Watchdog dot Org for
breaking the document
shredding and mishandling story. After that became
public, VBA imposed new work rules to safeguard veterans'
documents. I can hear the "official" statement now:
"We could work faster if we didn't have to follow the rules."
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TOPICS:
veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs,
veterans' claims, disability claims, claims backlog, MMWR |
