?No veteran should have to wait months or years for the benefits that you?ve earned,? President Obama said in a Veterans Day speech, ?so we will continue to attack the claims backlog. We won?t let up. We will not let up.?
Through July of this year, 66 percent of claims for disability compensation and pensions were still pending more than 125 days after being filed, failing to comply with the department?s own timeliness goals. That deficiency is up from 60 percent in 2011.
Veterans who appeal a rejected claim form another quagmire, with the average time between the filing of an appeal and its resolution being almost two and half years. A losing appeal may be fought in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims ? Veterans? advocates call that ?the hamster wheel.?
In the Department of Veterans Affairs defense, in the last decade its workload exponentially increased. In 2011 veterans filed more than 1.3 million claims, double the number of 2001. According to the department, 45 percent of recent veterans are requesting benefits, each with between 11 to 15 medical issues, vastly higher than the historical rate after World War II and Vietnam. The health of the population of Vietnam-era veterans is rapidly deteriorating, while the list of ailments for which the department is giving compensation ? like heart disease, leukemia and Parkinson?s, from exposure to Agent Orange ? is growing.
With increased staffing, better training and technology, the Veterans Affairs Department claims that it is becoming better at organizational efficiency and that its paper-bound benefits bureaucracy will be overhauled by the end of 2013, when all 56 regional offices will have digitized systems.
A veteran?s widow is hoping that the Supreme Court next year will take a case to empower the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to close cases on its own rather than remanding so many back to the departmental maze.
Contact Michigan Elder Law Attorney Christopher Berry to help ensure you receive your full benefit, in a timely fashion.
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/opinion/the-paperwork-mountain-at-veterans-affairs.html?_r=0
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Attorney Christopher J. Berry is a Metro Detroit estate planning and elder law lawyer who helps families, seniors, veterans and business owners with their important legal needs. Oakland County estate planning lawyer, Christopher Berry is a partner in the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke Berry PLLC. Mr. Berry practices in the areas ofestate planning, business, probate, veterans benefits & Medicaid planning. Follow Christopher on Twitter@chrisberryesq.
Source: http://michiganelderlawcenter.com/paperwork-mountain-at-veterans-affairs/
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