Delays can be huge with long-term disability claims

When you file for long-term disability claims after service in the military, they can sometimes get delayed. While this is frustrating, new reports have shown that minor delays are not even as bad as it gets. Some people were left waiting for decades.

For example, a report out of the Oakland, California, area showed that 14,000 claims had been extremely delayed and had not been processed even in 2015. The shocking part was that some of those claims were submitted back in the 1990s. At the very best, that means they had been sitting on file for around 16 years, though it could have been longer.

While that example pertains strictly to the office in Oakland, it shows just how widespread this problem can be. If one office in one city had 14,000 extreme delays, how many others were there at similar offices around the country?

Some reports showed that the total was as high as 900,000. Granted, this included all delays, not just those dating back more than 15 years. Still, many soldiers faced an average wait time of 316 to 327 days. This was an increase from the previous average of 273 days. As this illustrates, even those who do not have to wait for decades often have to wait for nearly a year to see any benefits.

Have you been trying to get your benefits, but delays have slowed the process down so that you do not have the assistance that you need? If so, you must know exactly what legal options you have to make sure that the delays do not drag on for years.

Source: Breitbart, “OIG: Oakland VA Delayed Processing Disabilities for over a Decade” Chriss W. Street, accessed Mar. 04, 2015