GAO

The A - Z Guide: Veterans VA Disability Benefits

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Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.
Otto Von Bismark

General Accounting Office (GAO)

GAO _ VA Reports

Military and Veterans Health Care and Disability Benefits This page lists the most recent reports and testimonies related to military and veterans' health care and disability benefits issued since March 2003.

GAO Reports of Interest GAO Report GAO/T-HEHS/AIMD-00-146 May 18, 2000 Veterans Benefits Administration: Problems and Challenges Facing Disability Claims Processing

Almost a decade ago the GAO issued this report criticizing the VA for it's shoddy work. The report tells you, "The concerns have focused on backlogs of claims, long waits for disability decisions, and the poor quality of these decisions, all of which have negatively affected the quality of service provided to veterans."

Further along it's noted that, "We have issued a number of reports on VBA’s claims-processing operations (and) VBA’s problems with large backlogs and long waits for decisions have not yet improved, despite years of studying these problems. Moreover, VBA's new quality measurement system shows that nearly one- third of decisions are incorrect or have technical or procedural errors."

During the years that have passed since this report was issued, this situation not only has not improved, it's become markedly worse.

Waiting times for the simplest decisions are longer than ever before. The DVA is plagued with scandals; losing sensitive veteran data on stolen laptop computers, the intentional shredding of veterans most important documents and the release of "internal use" memos from managers begging employees to do their jobs.

April 1943. Washington, D.C.
"Soldiers looking out the window of the bus just before leaving
the Greyhound terminal."
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