
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994                   TAG: 9402170056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BACKLOG CAN KEEP VETERANS WAITING YEARS FOR BENEFITS

America's military veterans often must wait years for decisions on compensation for injury or illness, the government and veterans groups say. The backlog of federal claims is soaring toward 1 million.

The Veterans Affairs Department acknowledges it is losing the battle of coping with the tens of thousands of new claims for compensation and pensions that come in every year. Four years ago, the backlog of pending claims was 377,000. By the end of fiscal year 1995, the VA estimates, it could hit 870,000.

On average, it takes more than 200 days to get an initial compensation claim processed, and a veteran can expect to wait more than two years to get a decision from the Board of Veterans Appeals.

VA Secretary Jesse Brown said the backlog "remains one of the foremost concerns" in the Veterans Benefits Administration, predicting that claims completed will decline soon because of new legal requirements and the more complex nature of today's claims.

Veterans groups are up in arms over the delays. "We believe that a crisis situation, approaching a state of emergency, currently exists in VA's Compensation and Pension Service," Joseph Violante of Disabled American Veterans testified before Congress. Appeals board delays "have become unconscionable and intolerable."

John Hanson of the American Legion said other issues "must not be allowed to overshadow the true crisis" in the claims process and "the impact this is having on the lives of tens of thousands of veterans and their families."

"Overall, the system stinks," said Sam Ledwith, 73, a former Marine who fought in the Pacific in World War II and in the Korean War. Ledwith, of Valley Stream, N.Y., recently learned, after four years of appeals and an even longer period of hospital visits, that the VA was restoring a 40 percent disability payment for hearing loss it had cut in half in the 1980s.

"It's too big, too bureaucratic," he said. "It just doesn't jell."

Gary Hickman, director of the Compensation and Pension Service, said military reductions have meant a 50 percent jump in new claims, to about 150,000 last year, and that veterans now tend to file multiple, often complicated, claims.

Board of Veterans Appeals Chairman Charles Cragin said the creation in 1988 of a Court of Veterans Appeals, while helping define a body of common law for veterans, has added an adversarial, legalistic element to what had been a paternalistic system.

He said new requirements for more comprehensive explanations of decisions have also added to paperwork - an average file may be 4 feet high - and slowed down the process. The board of appeals made 45,000 decisions in 1991, but may conclude only 13,000 this year. If this trend continues, it could take more than six years to hear an appeal.

by CNB