The inspector general for the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) reports a backlog on processing veterans’ benefits applications is much worse than initially indicated. The September report indicates the VA ignored or omitted tens of thousands of cases that are more than 125 days old when recently reporting improvements in processing benefits applications.
The inspector general says the VA only reported about 79 percent of its case backlog when addressing complaints about taking too long to help the nation’s veterans obtain the benefits owed for their sacrifices. The other 21 percent of cases were misclassified, excluded by mistake or only acknowledged after the VA processed them, the inspector general reported.
The backlog of veterans’ benefits applications became a serious problem for President Barack Obama’s administration. The VA undertook steps to address a backlog and reported it was behind on processing about 75,000 cases in 2015. That number was the lowest in years.
The backlog of 75,000 cases in 2015 represented an 88 percent reduction in just two years. Unfortunately, the inspector general says that improvement was not nearly as effective as initially indicated. The slowdown in processing veterans’ benefits applications arises from an understandably sharp increase in the number of U.S. veterans who fought in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, among other military operations.
The VA had targeted 2015 as the year it would eliminate the backlog. While it has made significant progress, the improvement is not as extensive as initially indicated. That means more veterans in Michigan are missing out on the benefits owed for service and sacrifice.
