Editorial: More - VA's resources too meager to end backlog [View all]

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/03/04/1240654?sac=fo.military

Editorial: More - VA's resources too meager to end backlog
Published: 12:00 AM, Mon Mar 04, 2013

'Hurry up and wait" never had better application than at the end of a war, with many thousands of troops and millions of pieces of equipment waiting to be collected, identified and shipped to their various Stateside destinations. Realists expect neither perfection nor instant, glitch-free service as the pressure builds.

With regard to the processing of disability claims, though, difficult questions arise. Veterans once made a commitment to serve, and certain commitments were made to them in return. Explanations aside, at what point does delay begin to take on the properties of default?

Such questions could be pushed off indefinitely, had the VA not set its own standard: all claims processed within 125 days. Tell that to the 7,000 veterans who have been waiting a year for the regional office in Winston-Salem to rule one way or the other on their applications. Or the 700 who have waited more than two years.

The average wait time is 341 days.