VA staff is buried in backlog of unlimited veterans disability appeals

[nitpicker]

http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/va-staff-is-buried-in-backlog-of-unlimited-veterans-disability-appeals-1.380230

VA staff is buried in backlog of unlimited veterans disability appeals

By Alan Zarembo

Los Angeles Times

Published: November 23, 2015


LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) —
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Figueroa’s is the oldest case among the more than 425,000 now swamping a veterans appeals system that advocates and government officials say is badly broken.

The appeals system does not have enough staff to handle the record number of veterans — from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Vietnam — filing for disability payments over the last decade, then appealing when all or part of their claims are denied.

But experts point to a more fundamental problem. Unlike U.S. civil courts, the appeals system has no mechanism to prevent endless challenges. Veterans can keep their claims alive either by appealing or by restarting the process from scratch by submitting new evidence: service records, medical reports or witness statements.
(snip)

The backlog has occurred as the VA has celebrated its success in whittling down delays in processing new claims. Fewer than 80,000 veterans have currently been waiting more than 125 days for initial decisions, down from a peak of more than 600,000 two years ago.

The number awaiting appeals, however, climbed from 167,412 in September 2005 to 425,480 this October.

Veterans’ advocates say the VA has simply traded one problem for another, having shifted many of the agency’s workers from appeals to initial claims.
(snip)