Over 600,000 veterans caught in messy bureaucracy awaiting pending claims

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/vets-grow-frustrated-massive-claims-backlog-article-1.1335970?localLinksEnabled=false

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1335969.1367817911!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/vets6n-1-web.jpg

Republican and Democratic senators are howling over the 600,000 vet backlog for veterans like Anthony Pike, pictured here.

Over 600,000 veterans caught in messy bureaucracy awaiting pending claims
By James Warren / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 7:25 AM

WASHINGTON — After two tours of duty with the Marines in Iraq, Anthony Pike returned home with hearing loss, a ringing in his ears and what he says is profound stress.

And now there's the galling, added stress he's guaranteed in filing for disability payments with the New York office of the Veterans Administration. Having endured many firefights in Iraq, the former sergeant will have to exhibit the patience of Job.

The Veterans Administration is a mess, with more than 600,000 veterans caught in the bureaucracy awaiting first-time claims adjudications. In a rare act of bipartisanship frustration, 67 senators wrote to President Obama and implored him to "take direct action and involvement in ending" the sky-high backlog.

The average wait in New York for resolving first time claims is 642 days, say the senators, which would be worst in the nation were it not for Reno, Nev., where the average is 681 days. The average time for response to first time claims now ranges between 316 and 327 days nationally, depending on whether the number of issues a claimant presents is between one and seven or eight and higher.