Keeping Veterans Waiting For Benefits

Many American military veterans are frustrated by the backlog of disability claims that are keeping them waiting on their benefits. In the state of Oklahoma, for example, it is taking twice as long as the usual average length of time to process a veterans claim. There are currently around 7,000 unfinished claims in Oklahoma, due to a backlog at the Veterans Affairs Department. The federal agency handles most state level cases, and with a growing number of wounded and disabled veterans returning from warzones in Iraq and Afghanistan, an already backlogged system is just getting increasingly behind.

The Veterans Affairs Department has long had a backlog of disability benefit claims. However, there are several factors now contributing to an increase in the number of backlogged disability cases. The veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing injuries that complicate the process. This is mainly head trauma, often blunt trauma, that results from explosions like those from Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, commonly used in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only is the process already complicated and prone to human error, but these types of injuries also cause additional confusion and difficulty properly completing the paperwork. The forms are lengthy and complex, and if patients do not fill them out properly or provide incorrect iinformation, the Veterans Affairs Department must write them back requesting the proper information, and the patient must turn around and file paperwork again. This, of course, slows down the process and lengthens the time it takes for a veteran to receive benefits.

The Veterans Affairs Web site showed that, in the first four months of 2009, veterans' disability claims unfinished and still in progress had grown by over 100,000 than the previous count. With this rapidly climbing number of backlogged cases, agencies under the Veterans Affairs Department have attempted to rush the hiring and training of new employees to process the claims. But quick hiring difficult, and like many other jobs the position is technical and detailed. It can take a year or more to train a new person in the position, and the importance of accuracy and attention to detail is compounded by making decisions that affect people's lives and livelihood as well as keeping thorough government records.

Oklahoma is expected to see further growth in the number of claims, but the situation there looks better than in other states. Eventually, with an increase in funding and new hires, the backlogged system may return to its normal state. However, with a government currently bogged down with the cost of stimulus packages, a hazy economic outlook, rising unemployment, and the further problems of many individual states enmeshed in budget crises of their own, it is questionable as to whether or not additional funding in significant amounts will be forthcoming.