Older Vets are without Benefits for Years because of the Long Appeals Process

Cases involving the appeal of veterans benefits rulings take almost 19 months to resolve, Department of Veterans Affairs records show, and advocates say the crush of new claims is hurting older veterans. 

At least 350,000 veterans of wars before those in Iraq and Afghanistan have outstanding appeals of benefits decisions, according to VA records.

Meanwhile the VA has touted how much it has cut the backlog of benefits claims that have taken longer than 125 days to resolve from 611,000 in 2013 to 344,000 in April. 

Progress in resolving initial benefits claims has come at the expense of settling older claims, said Glenn Bergmann, a former VA attorney who now fights veterans' appeals cases at Bergmann & Moore LLC.

"They pull all the back-of-the-line guys to front, but they stole from Peter to pay Paul, and these veterans have been abandoned again," Bergmann said. "They're dying while they're waiting."

Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.