Local Veterans Face Long Waits for VA Benefits

Our veterans are now facing a new enemy at home – long wait times for disability claims.

The waiting times started increasing in 2010 when U.S. troops were withdrawn from Iraq, causing a dramatic uptick in first-time filers, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The data found that in most regional VA offices, not only did waiting times increase, but they vary dramatically by location: about a year and five months in Baltimore, Maryland compared to four months in Fargo, North Dakota. The national average now stands at about 11 months, which is dramatically higher than in 2009 when it was four months.

The backlog of veterans at the St. Petersburg area office waiting on a disability claim to be reveiwed has increased from no one in 2009 to more than 50,000 in 2013. The determination can take as long as 320 days.

The backlog has also partly been blamed on the VA still using paper to process their claims. In 2011, the Department started implementing a computerized system in several of its regional offices. However, despite spending $537 million on the new program and hiring 3,300 more claims processors, 97 percent of veterans’ claims are still on paper.

In addition, even though Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki pledged back in March that the VA will end the enormous backlog by 2015, the VA quietly backed off from that promise in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

Memorial Day, which is celebrated this Monday, is officially a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country. In practice, it's often a day to recognize living veterans locally. 

The data above was obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and is updated weekly.