Part Of The Backlog Is Caused By The Economy

[JamesBreckenridge]

I thought that the reasons claims were up 14 percent was because we were fighting two wars for the past 8 years... but I'm told that the numbers don't bear that out. Lord knows that I only rarely get a Global War On Terror (GWOT) vet's claim. Almost all of my claims are Vietnam vets and retired peacetime vets, coming in for their first claim ever, or claiming every condition under the sun as secondary to their service connected condition.

I think it's the economy. Social Security is experiencing exactly the same thing we are.

<i>Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.

What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.

"A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire," said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If they were younger, we would call them unemployed."</i>

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_...y_retirements_8

I'm not trying to justify our backlog, but rather to shed some light on part of a multifactorial cause.

[Testvet]

I thought that the reasons claims were up 14 percent was because we were fighting two wars for the past 8 years... but I'm told that the numbers don't bear that out. Lord knows that I only rarely get a Global War On Terror (GWOT) vet's claim. Almost all of my claims are Vietnam vets and retired peacetime vets, coming in for their first claim ever, or claiming every condition under the sun as secondary to their service connected condition.

I think it's the economy. Social Security is experiencing exactly the same thing we are.

<i>Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.

What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.

"A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire," said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If they were younger, we would call them unemployed."</i>

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_...y_retirements_8

I'm not trying to justify our backlog, but rather to shed some light on part of a multifactorial cause.

The increase in backlog started years ago even when I filed my claim back in 2002 the VA was already behind, there were no veterans yet from Afghanistan and Iraq had not even started, many veterans PTSD was triggered by the constant war footage that was on daily from Sept 2001 until the media got tired in 2006 of all of the lies, and the "surge worked" was sold to the public, but then even Secretary Max Clelend went public about coming to terms with his PTSD about the fall of 2005, heck there are now WW2 and Korean war veterans are filing PTSD, what who is going to tell them theyare not eligible to file claims, thus we got that "tiger team" to handle claims of people aged 70 and over the paper world has not come to terms with the digital world yet and until it does the system will stay back logged plain and simple

[Pete53]

I can say that when the economy is bad the VA is swamped with more Veterans clawing for help. Right now the VAMC I go to is swamped and the economy has a lot to do with it.

[allan]

It's the war on terror? It's the baby boomer's?

Denying claims by the thousands, claiming they were all of a sudden, "not well grounded" greatly increased the VA backlog. Many are still on appeal.

Refusal to recognize favorable IMO's & C&P's, shredding & loosing primary evidence, practices of Dr shopping by raters for just the right IMO to deny with, refusing to recognize, AO, Gulf war illness, bio weapons & PTSD, MS and TBI's as service connected illnesses have all contributed to the backlogs.

But if it wasn't for all these dad burn baby boomer's filing for all those secondary issues, there wouldn't be any backlogs. LOL

[broncovet]

The VA has had a claims backlog since Moby Dick was a minnow, as Testvet pointed out. If it were the economy causing the problem, then the VA would "catch up" on the backlog in good economic times. Instead, the backlog keeps getting worse and worse in good economies and bad.

Considering that there is ZERO backlog on VA employee/executive bonuses/compensation, the VA is sending a clear message: The Va has prioritized executive and bonus compensation over the needs of Veterans. This is bad management, as they are simply not doing their job, and then they pat each other on the back with a "job well done"..as they get each others bonus approved, while Veterans become homeless waiting on them to process their benefits.

[timetowinarace]

The economy surely contributes to the backlog. That's not to tough to see. It is one of many contributers.

[john999]

The VA in Florida seems to have never looked at population trends. When I first went to the VAMC in Tampa in 1972 it was surrounded by empty land. The VA did not buy up this empty land with an idea that they would need to expand as millions of people moved to the state. Now every square inch around the VA is either owned by crummy apartment complexes, strip malls, or the University of South Florida. It takes me 20 minutes to get to the VA, but it takes me thirty minutes to wait for a shuttle bus and actually get to the hospital. In summer the VAMC usually quiets down, but not this summer. It is crowded now, and I hate to see it in winter when the snow birds come down, and head for the VAMC with their pill bottles, hover rounds and walkers. Most of the vets I see at my VAMC are older, poor and sick. I don't have any idea how many are service connected. It is basically a charity hospital. The VA people doing the paperwork move so slowly you need time lapse photograhpy to see if they are moving. It is a degrading, depressing and demeaning experience to visit my VAMC. I always want to take a shower when I get home because the place is dirty. I go to get my pills and to make sure I document my continuing disability. I just hold my nose and make the trip.