Veteran's Frustrated by Disability Claims Backlog

Oklahoma veterans' disability claims have taken twice as long to process due to a backlog at the Veterans Affairs Department..

Thursday, June 18th 2009, 6:57 pm

By: News 9


By Jacqueline Sit, NEWS 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Oklahoma veterans' disability claims have taken twice as long to process due to a backlog at the Veterans Affairs Department.

In Oklahoma, there are about 7,000 unfinished claims. The federal agency also handles most of the cases on the state level. Because of this, it has taken twice as long for a claim to be processed.

At the Norman Veteran Center, veteran Mike Walters has dealt with the backlog that has long affected the system, which is only getting worse. He said a large reason for the problem is the growing number of veterans submitting new claims, many of whom have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I think that's going to increase because of the type of injuries, mainly the head trauma, the blunt trauma cause by the explosion, the IEDs and things like that," said Mike Walters.

The VA's Web site reported that in the last four months the number of unfinished disability claims has grown by over 100,000.

"The process is very complex and a lot of people get frustrated with the forms. They don't fill them out right or they don't get the right information and the VA writes them back," Walters said.

Walters said with a VA's claims backlogged, agencies have scrambled to hire and train new help, but he said even that takes time.

"It's like any other job. When you put someone onto these various jobs, these are very technical. You have to make decisions that affect people's lives, so it takes a year to a year and a half to train someone," he said.

The number of claims in Oklahoma is expected to grow, but the state's situation is not as bad as other states.

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs' regional office in Muskogee is one of the largest in the country and handles about 2000 compensation and pension claims a month.

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