NY And LA Vets: Take A Long Hike As Your Disability Claims Ripen

The Veterans Affairs Department reports it has a backlog of 898,861 disability claims, with 632,358, or 70.5 percent stuck in the system for over 125 days.

Joseph Violante, national legislative director at Disabled American Veterans, told a hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee today that these figures don’t convey the true picture of the backlog. He said the length of time it takes to process veterans' claims also continues to rise, with the average processing time now almost 280 days.  Veterans Benefit Administration regional offices in New York and Los Angeles average 450 and 500 days respectively to process a claim, Violante told the hearing.