Backlog Affects Access to VA Benefits

Santa Fe, NMFor the many men and women who have served in the military, news about backlogs in VA benefits is likely disheartening. Given the amount of time they spent serving their country, hearing that they could wait years for their veteran benefits has upset some veterans, and understandably so, given what they survived through to return home. But as more and more veterans come home, facing longer and longer waits for their benefits, some are speaking out about their frustration with the veteran benefits system.

WNCN (5/21/13) reports on married veterans who between them have almost 50 years of military service. One has been waiting a year for his benefits. Her husband has been waiting for three years. According to the report, close to one million veterans have waited a year or more for their benefits, causing a great deal of frustration. Currently, more than 244,000 veterans have been waiting for more than a year to have their claims approved.

Among the reasons for the backlog are the increased number of people returning from deployments and the expansion of the list of disabilities due to Agent Orange exposure that are covered by VA benefits.

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR; 5/1/13) notes in its report “VA backlog follows veterans to the grave,” that in addition to the number of veterans waiting a year for disability benefits, there are many spouses and family members of veterans waiting for burial benefits. The average wait time for burial benefits jumped from two months in 2008 to 207 days in December 2012, with 65,000 family members awaiting burial benefits.

In some cases, spouses of deceased veterans are waiting more than a year to find out if they are approved for nursing care subsidies or pensions. The CIR notes that the number of survivors requesting burial benefits or pensions has not increased substantially, unlike the increase in disability claims, so there is not a logical reason for the delays.

Those delays increase the hardship veterans’ families face, and exacerbate the grief of losing a loved one. One widow had her home foreclosed on and racked up hundreds of dollars in interest thanks to loans she had taken out to pay for her husband’s funeral after the Department of Veterans Affairs denied her request to help pay for his funeral. The department further denied the monthly benefits given to survivors of veterans whose deaths are linked to their military service, even though her husband committed suicide and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following his service.

The department later reversed its decision, but not in time to save the widow’s home.