Politics & Government

Israel's Bill in Congress Would Fight Claims Backlog

Veterans say they are waiting for months to receive benefits.

Rep. Steve Israel joined area local veterans recently to announce a new bill in Congress designed to speed up delivery of federal veterans benefits.

In a recent meeting with members of the Hicksville VFW Post 3211, Israel, D-Huntington, announced the “End the VA Claims Backlog Now Act.” The average wait time for veterans to start receiving benefits is 273 days, Israel said. The legislation would give provisional benefits to veterans filing for disability if a claim hasn’t been processed within 125 days.

“Our veterans who put their lives on the line for our country should never have to wait to receive the benefits they rightfully earned" Israel told the group. "It is unfathomable that the average wait time for veterans to start receiving benefits is 273 days. The VA must do better."

Currently, there are about 890,000 outstanding claims nationally, with 69 percent of them accounting for veterans that have been waiting beyond the 125-day goal the VA has set. Although the national average wait for receiving disability compensation and benefits is pegged at 273 days and up to 327 days for veterans making claims for the first time, those veterans living in big cities wait for much longer, up to 642 days in New York.

The VA has recognized a surge in claims with nearly 1 million added in the last four years, but the slowdown is widely attributed to the fact that 97 percent of veterans’ claims are still filed on paper.

The benefits would be equal to an automatic 40 percent disability rating or the average amount payable to a person who receives a payment for the type of disability for which the claim was submitted.


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