by Aaron Glantz, Center for Investigative Reporting
The Department of Veterans Affairs has systematically missed nearly all of its internal benchmarks for reducing a hulking backlog of benefits claims and has quietly backed away from repeated promises to give all veterans and family members speedier decisions by 2015.

Navy veteran Wallace Watson of Fremont, Calif., applied for veteran disability benefits in September 2010 and recently got an exam. (Erik Verduzco/Center for Investigative Reporting)
Internal VA documents, obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting, show the agency processed 260,000 fewer claims than it thought it would during the past year and a half—falling 130,000 short in the 2012 fiscal year and another 130,000 short of its goal between October and March.
The result: At a time when the number of veterans facing long waits was supposed to be going down, it instead went up.
On April 29, the VA began to qualify its promise, made repeatedly since 2009, that “all claims” would be processed within four months by 2015.
In a weekly performance report posted on its website, the agency excludes a host of benefits from the promise—including veterans’ burial subsidies, pensions sought by survivors, and compensation claims from children of Vietnam veterans who have birth defects caused by the defoliant Agent Orange. Continue reading









