It’s Your Money > U.S. Military Veteran Benefits

VA Claims-Processing Delays Hit 20-Year High

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Art, just a re(tired) Fil-Am:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/11/30/va-claims-processing-delays-hit-20-year-high.html

Nov 30, 2012   McClatchy-Tribune News Service| by Chris Adams

WASHINGTON -- The time needed to process veterans' disability claims shot up by nearly 40 percent last year despite years of effort by federal officials to streamline and shorten the process, records show.
The times necessary to process education benefits and burial benefits, as well as the time needed to wind through the Department of Veterans Affairs appeals process, also increased in fiscal 2012.
The disability-processing time is closely watched by Congress and veterans' advocates as a measure of VA efficiency. In fiscal 2012, the average days to complete a VA disability compensation or pension claim rose to 262 days, up from 188 days in fiscal 2011, according to a recently completely VA performance report.
The 262-day average is the highest that measure has been in at least the past 20 years for which numbers were available.
The VA's long-term goal is to get the processing time to an average of 90 days.
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I only got a 20% VA rating in 1987 after getting out of active duty with 12 yrs in service and over the years the VA has added other items on the list I can now claim. I plan to get assistance from a VSO with the VFW from Angeles City to handle all the paperwork I need so as to leave nothing to doubt or by chance when refiling my claim with the V.A. in Manila. It will take awhile I'm sure, because I don't have yet all the necessary documents and and or military medical records available, but a few! I still have yet to contact the new replacement VSO!
Government paperwork is always a tedious task, but VA is the last venue I may have a chance at in increasing my annual income, this year's COLA of 1.7 across the board isn't going to do much, but just think what a 60% or above rating would amount to! BTW, since my rating is under 60%, my 20% amount is actually coming out of my Reserve military pension! So, my VA comp pay is not really an added extra amount, because it's wavered by my military pay, but if I were to get a 70% or higher rating, it would no longer be deducted from my military pay and it's non-taxable income where as my military pay and civil service pension are taxed!

Here are the ratings and amount paid:
http://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-care/va-disability-compensation-rates.html

tom.inbigdtexas:

--- Quote from: Art2ro on December 07, 2012, 10:05:58 AM ---... [my] reserve military pension... my VA comp pay...  my... civil service pension... 

--- End quote ---

... and let's not forget your SS pension... Art, you are making waaaaaay tooooo much money. 8) ... uuuhhhh, can loan me $20,000 for a hot meal and a cup of coffee? :D

Tom

Art, just a re(tired) Fil-Am:

--- Quote from: tom.inbigdtexas on December 09, 2012, 01:48:14 PM ---
--- Quote from: Art2ro on December 07, 2012, 10:05:58 AM ---... [my] reserve military pension... my VA comp pay...  my... civil service pension... 

--- End quote ---
... and let's not forget your SS pension... Art, you are making waaaaaay tooooo much money. 8) ... uuuhhhh, can loan me $20,000 for a hot meal and a cup of coffee? :D
Tom

--- End quote ---
I ain't rich, far from it! My VA & SSA are just chump change for "little Red's"petrol, my beer money & smokes!  :o

Lee2:

--- Quote from: Art2ro on December 09, 2012, 02:16:45 PM ---I ain't rich, far from it! My VA & SSA are just chump change for "little Red's"petrol, my beer money & smokes!  :o

--- End quote ---

I am sure Tom in Big d Texas is just joking with you but I can tell you one thing Art and others, often when we post about some of what we get, sometimes some others get jealous, I know that to have been the case on one forum that shall remain unnamed and that Art and I were on where some got jealous of Art's pensions and of the fact that I have a pension and ss. Self accountability is often what it is all about and sometimes luck, some people do not like to realize that they themselves are the only ones that they can blame if they too did not plan their lives better from the start, yet life often tosses many of us curves that there is nothing anyone could have done better even with the best of planning. I am not putting anyone down and maybe I got lucky and so did Art and others who found a way to get govt pensions but I knew when I was 18 that I wanted to have a future with benefits and a pension so I could hopefully not have to work my whole life and I feel I might have been lucky to have been in the right place at the right time and taken the right tests to get jobs that afforded me options some other people were not lucky enough to have. '

In today's very uncertain world, those of us who got lucky or however it turned out that we have pensions should be very thankful we have them, I know I count my lucky stars every day and say thanks for the blessings I have been lucky enough to get during my lifetime and that includes my wife finding me.

edit to add big d texas as to clarify which Tom I meant with my above post

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