There has been a major problem at the Department of Veterans' Affairs which has now grown into a full blown scandal. The number of veterans filing claims for disability benefits who have to wait extra long periods of time for a response keeps expanding. Now, the Washington Post is reporting on one of the reasons for that enormous backlog.
First let's look at some numbers. According to the official government statistics the backlog of claims to the VA for disability grew in 2011 by 155%. That backlog consists of claims on which there has been no ruling from the VA for more than four months after the filing of the claim. The growth of the backlog continued in 2012, although I cannot give you the actual rate of growth during last year.
Let's be clear what these numbers mean. Men and women who put their lives on the line for America and who were injured have made requests for compensation for disability in accordance with the provisions of the law. The federal government, however, is treating these veterans like scum. It puts the claims on a pile and then does nothing with them for months at a time. Meanwhile, the vets are left in extreme situations with no help.
How can it be that such a huge number of claims are being left for six months, one year or longer? The Washington Post report uncovers one reason. It seems that the claims administrators who have let the enormous backlog build up got performance bonuses of over five million dollars in 2011 (when the backlog grew 155%). According to the Post report, the administrators got the bonuses by putting all the difficult cases to the side and only ruling on simple cases which would be decided quickly. This allowed the administrators to "close" a large number of cases, but it also resulted in men with very serious conditions languishing in limbo because their cases were just too difficult to process quickly. This includes nearly every claim resulting from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The failure to process serious claims has finally gotten the attention of Congress. Maybe the Washington Post story will lead to some pressure from the media as well. America's veterans gave too much to this country for them to be ignored now by the Obama Administration. This scandal has to be dealt with quickly. Maybe someone could bring it up to president Obama during his next golf game.
First let's look at some numbers. According to the official government statistics the backlog of claims to the VA for disability grew in 2011 by 155%. That backlog consists of claims on which there has been no ruling from the VA for more than four months after the filing of the claim. The growth of the backlog continued in 2012, although I cannot give you the actual rate of growth during last year.
Let's be clear what these numbers mean. Men and women who put their lives on the line for America and who were injured have made requests for compensation for disability in accordance with the provisions of the law. The federal government, however, is treating these veterans like scum. It puts the claims on a pile and then does nothing with them for months at a time. Meanwhile, the vets are left in extreme situations with no help.
How can it be that such a huge number of claims are being left for six months, one year or longer? The Washington Post report uncovers one reason. It seems that the claims administrators who have let the enormous backlog build up got performance bonuses of over five million dollars in 2011 (when the backlog grew 155%). According to the Post report, the administrators got the bonuses by putting all the difficult cases to the side and only ruling on simple cases which would be decided quickly. This allowed the administrators to "close" a large number of cases, but it also resulted in men with very serious conditions languishing in limbo because their cases were just too difficult to process quickly. This includes nearly every claim resulting from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The failure to process serious claims has finally gotten the attention of Congress. Maybe the Washington Post story will lead to some pressure from the media as well. America's veterans gave too much to this country for them to be ignored now by the Obama Administration. This scandal has to be dealt with quickly. Maybe someone could bring it up to president Obama during his next golf game.
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