Op Ed article irresponsible on OEF and OIF VA Claims

Most of us can agree things are pretty terrible for veterans trying to have claims approved. More of us can agree there are irresponsible articles popping up and this is one of them.

Nearly 600,000 Wounded Vets Claims for Disability Suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan Wars "backlogged" for Months
By Dave Lefcourt
OpEdNews Op Eds
5/20/2013

Let's say you're an Iraq or Afghanistan war veteran and you were seriously wounded during your tour of duty and subsequently upon your return to the states filed a claim for disability compensation to the Department of Veterans Affairs but as yet haven't had your claim processed.

Most likely you're one of almost 600,000 wounded veterans whose claim is "backlogged", meaning it's been pending for over 125 days.

This apparently is not something new for the Veterans Affairs Department where delays in processing claims for disabilities have existed for years.

But now the criticism has grown louder, particularly from the "Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America", the largest group representing the veterans of these two wars.

Paul Rieckhoff, the Chief Executive and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans says, "For people in their 20's, the idea that we can't get the technology updated seems ridiculous." These young veterans are impatient for change, no longer willing to tolerate the Department's excuses for the delays.

And they are right on the money with their criticism. They don't want to hear it's the paper system that's blamed for the backlog, apparently an antiquated processing system now overwhelmed by the claims filed by these new veterans.
read more here

My jaw dropped! Why? Today is Monday and the VA puts out a report every week on the status of claims they are processing. This is as of today.

There is a weekly update the VA puts out with a breakdown of claims. Right now there are 606,007 considered "backlog" but 38% of those claims are Vietnam Veterans. OEF and OIF veterans are 22%, Gulf War veterans are 22%, Peacetime are 11% and Other, usually older veterans, are 7%. Here is the link to where you can get the right information. VA Claims This article is irresponsible.

If you check the site you'll see that 60% are claims for increases on top of everything else.

Here is another great place for correct information National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics