Oct. 13, 2021, 09:37:00 PM
WASHINGTON – Starting in October, the Department of Veterans Affairs will recruit and train new staff to ensure veteran’s complaints are resolved quickly and help reduce the expected increase the accumulation of pending complaints of more than 125 days.
VA is taking the following proactive steps to assist with downsizing:
Hire and train 2,000 new employees to assist with claims processing.
Use funds provided through the American Rescue Plan for overtime to ensure timely processing of complaints.
Distribute the budgetary resources required for the fiscal year 2022 to support the alleged processing of Agent Orange, as well as the general processing of compensation and pension claims.
As of 11 October, there were over 20 ,000 claims overdue out of an inventory of 603,000 total claims. VA has identified more than 70,000 review requests for additional rights arising from the alleged link between Agent Orange and parkinsonism, bladder cancer, and hypothyroidism. Many of these will enter the order book in October, which is expected to reach 260,000 pending requests.
“VA is committed to ensuring timely access to benefits and services for all Veterans. This includes making sure Veterans who may have experienced adverse health effects from military related exposures can get access to the benefits they need,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “As we process claims such as those for three new disabilities presumptively linked to Agent Orange exposure, including proactive application of Nehmer provisions, as well as three new Gulf War particulate exposure presumptives, we anticipate the claims backlog to increase this fall. The hiring of new employees will help us resolve these claims more quickly.”
Several factors contributed to the recent delay. Beginning in March 2020, the operational changes required by the COVID19 pandemic resulted in a premature delay in the retrieval of documents by the Federal Records Centers and the suspension of compensation and retirement exams. While these actions were necessary to protect the health and safety of employees and veterans, they reduced the time to process requests.VA’s workload has also increased following the recent decisions and actions mentioned above, including a court order ordering the review of previously denied veterans on the basis of qualified service in the 12 nautical miles surrounding Vietnam.
The backlog has decreased by more than 1 ,000 applications since the end of August 2021. As VA continues to improve its ability to obtain C and P exams and federal records and with all required resources received, VBA expects to address the impending increase and therefore further reduce the current claims portfolio to 100,000 claims by April 202 1.
To learn more about claims and to view reports, visit Claims Details here:
Rewritten by the Veteran x team
sourced from: https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5728
