Battleland

Soldier Boy, You’re Gonna Carry That Wait

The VA keeps insisting it is getting its disability-claims backlog under control. Not according to a Government Accountability Office report released Friday.

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GAO

The VA keeps insisting it is getting its disability-claims backlog under control. Not according to this Government Accountability Office report released Friday:

…the average length of time to complete a claim has increased from 161 days in 2009 to 260 days in 2012. Moreover, in August 2012, 568,043 claims—approximately two-thirds of all compensation rating claims—were backlogged. In addition, timeliness of appeals processing at VA regional offices has also slowed by 56 percent over the last several years.

And note that the jumps represented by the highest bars, for 2012, doesn’t include the entire year.

What a way to treat our troops…and it’s not entirely the VA’s fault. The nation has always been willing to pay to send them off to fight, but less willing to do what is necessary when some of them come home broken and need to be put back together.