Why is it so difficult for veterans to get VA benefits in a timely fashion?
It currently takes on average about six months or more for a veteran filing for disability benefits to receive a decision on his or her claim from the VA. If the disability benefits are denied and the decision is appealed, the average wait jumps to about two years. The VA does not have enough money or staff to adequately and promptly process the benefit applications of recently returning veterans while continuing to provide ongoing services to generations of veterans from previous decades. Congressional spending for 2008 attempts to address this problem by providing funding for hiring more VA caseworkers to process the backlog of claims.
