Weeks after filing legislation aimed at helping disabled veterans, U.S. Congressman Bill Enyart (D-IL) today praised steps taken by the Veterans Administration to speed up the processing of backlogged disability claims.
Enyart was briefed by VA officials Thursday, who reported that the backlog of nearly 900,000 veterans' disability claims has started to shrink in recent weeks.
"This is positive news for our disabled veterans," Enyart said. "The VA needs to operate with a sense of urgency so our veterans are not losing their homes or cars while waiting for disability pay to come through."
Enyart earlier praised the VA for instituting mandatory overtime for claims processors through the end of the fiscal year to reduce the 9-month backlog of disability claims applications. The moves comes under increasing pressure from members of Congress including Enyart, who has introduced legislation aimed at expediting the processing of veterans' disability claims. He also sponsored legislation to double the number of claims processors.
The Veterans Administration also announced Thursday that certain veterans filing new disability claims may be entitled to one year of retroactive payments by filing "fully developed claims" for benefits. By giving the VA the information from outside sources it needs up-front, the turn-around time for claims processing is significantly reduced. The new benefit takes effect August 6 for first-time filers.
A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Enyart has introduced the "Veterans Backlog Reduction Act," which will ensure that future veterans' disability claims are handled in a timely manner. Enyart's bill calls for provisional benefits to be paid to veterans whose claims have not been processed in 125 days.
Earlier this year, the average time to process a claim at the VA was 272 days, or approximately 9 months, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. In many cases, the wait is sometimes over a year, Enyart said. More than 10,000 VA claims processors are working 20 hours' overtime a month this summer in order to reduce the backlog. As a result of these initiatives, the VA's claims backlog has been reduced by 17 percent compared to highest point in March 2013, the agency said Thursday.
"These are good steps toward correcting the terrible injustice suffered by thousands veterans," Enyart said. "I'll continue to monitor the progress of the VA until the backlog is eliminated."
"These men and women are rightfully entitled to prompt adjudication and payment for their claims," Enyart said. "Often these disabled veterans are unable to work because of their injuries and they are suffering without income while waiting on the VA to process their claims."