How Long Is The Backlog Of Va Claims?

[broncovet]

If each Veteran waiting on the VA to process his claim were to line up, in Washington DC. How long would the line be? And how long would the wait be?

Answer: Not counting the backlog is Education benefits claims (the NEW GI BILL), if the 1,000,000 "backlogged" Veterans lined up, fingertip to finger tip, (Assuming 6 feet tall Veterans), the line would reach more than 1,136 miles. In other words, the line of Veterans waiting for benefits would stretch from Washington DC to Kansas City. Since Mr. Shinseki took over, the backlog has grown by about 15%, or the line has grown about 170 miles longer in the past year.

The wait averages about 2 years. The VA says that it takes about 6 months, however, since far less than 50% of Veterans claims get initial approval, an appeal process is required. Right now, a BVA appeal takes about 2 years. So the Average wait is about 2 years.

[Pete53]

My thinking on this is that it will track the same as Viet Nam. I would say a large majority did not file claims until years after. I know that for anxiety disorders that most treat with alcohol and drugs till they turn on you.

[timetowinarace]

I think the VA is turning out more/faster claims than in the past. But I think this is comming from the fresh pool of returning veterans that are getting quicker diagnoses. Some of them are getting some VA run around, but some are not.

The older veterans are getting more run around because of the way PTSD was viewed in the past. Also, there is the slow admission that AO has caused so many problems. Gulf War Illness will(is) follow the same path. How many years has it been now? It's been almost a year since GWSyndrome became an official Illness. Yet there is no rating for it. Then there will be simular problems for the current conflict when it is no longer current. VA will deny as much as possible when the wars are over.

I was not going to comment in this thread because it is complaining without doing anything about it. Complain to the media all you want. Complain to your elected officials all you want. This has been done for years now. Little to nothing has changed. What's that cute little quote people like to use? The definition of (insert correct word here) is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So, why not line up the veterans (or someone to represent them) from Washington to where-ever the the line ends and measure it? Use real people, real vets. Get DIFFERENT results.

No? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Pete53]

Makes sense to me. Just remember that not all VARO's are the same

[broncovet]

I agree with timetowinarace. Maybe we Veterans should get in a line..or if we are too sick to stand in line, ask someone else to "stand in line" for us. America needs to know there are a million Veterans currently being screwed around by the VA making them wait on paperwork.