Signs of Poor Performance
- More than 45 percent of all initial determinations of eligibility for benefits are appealed. It takes a year or more to resolve an appeal. Almost two-thirds of appeals are upheld, either outright or in a finding that more investigation is needed.
- Forty-two percent of telephone calls to VBA are greeted by a busy signal. Some VBA field office employees do not even have phones on their desks.
- VBA spent $300 million to upgrade computer systems over the last decade, with little to show for it. Average processing time for an initial benefits claim grew from 151 days in 1990 to 212 four years later. It's at less than 119 today, but the agency's goal is 88 days by the end of fiscal 1998.
- The backlog of pending claims cases grew from 273,248 in October 1996 to 314,544 in July 1997, as a result of a 20 percent increase in claims filed over the last two years. It was 396,000 at the end of October.
- The disability rating schedule has not been updated for 45 years.
- In fiscal 1995, VBA overpaid $303 million to veterans and their beneficiaries, but the agency recovered more than half. About one-quarter of the $120 million in unrecovered overpayments could have been prevented, the VA inspector general reported.
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