VA offers veterans a way to speed claims approval

Gregg Zoroya | USA TODAY

The Department of Veterans Affairs is offering to pay out additional compensation cash to veterans for injuries or wounds suffered during service if they will pull together all necessary paperwork when the claim is filed, making it easier for the department to approve their request.

Veterans could earn a check for up to a year's worth of additional disability benefits if they file this "fully developed" claim at the outset. The benefits would be retroactive for up to the entire year prior to when the claim was filed.

Currently, approved benefits are retroactively paid only to the date when the claim is filed.

The new offer, mandated by legislation passed last year, comes at a time when the VA is working to reduce a backlog of more than 500,000 delayed compensation cases.

The offer begins next Tuesday and extends through 2015, and pertains only to original claims and not those that are supplemental, the VA says.

A major problem delaying approval of a veteran's compensation claim is the lack of the necessary evidence to substantiate the veterans' request, the VA says.

Veterans often have the documents or can get them, the VA says, and if they can file a fully developed claim they can receive benefits more quickly.

"VA strongly encourages veterans to work with veterans service organizations to file fully developed claims and participate in this initiative since it means more money in eligible veterans' pockets simply by providing VA the information it needs up front," said Allison A. Hickey, under secretary for benefits. "At the same time, it helps reduce the inventory of pending claims by speeding the process."

The VA has reduced its backlog of cases that have been awaiting approval for more than four months by 17% since March through increased automation, a focus on older cases and mandatory overtime for VA workers.

About two out of three of the VA 's 786,000 pending compensation cases from veterans — or 507,000 cases — have been awaiting decisions for longer than four months.