The Department of Veterans Affairs is continuing to aggressively hire employees to handle an anticipated uptick in its claims backlog related to the PACT Act.
Veterans Benefits Administration Deputy Under Secretary for Field Operations William Clark Sr., recently told reporters that VA estimates the backlog will reach 450,000 to 700,000 claims next year.
“This is not a setback, but a reflection of the trust and reliance our veterans place on us,” Clark said.
The current claims backlog is around 319,000, he said.
“We are 23 percent ahead of last year’s pace,” Clark said of claims processing. “As of 11/26, VA has processed more than 9,000 veteran claims in a day 17 times this fiscal year. Before this fiscal year, VA has processed more than 9,000 claims only three times in our history.”
To keep up with the claims increase, Clark said VBA implemented a mandatory overtime requirement about 18 months ago. Most of its employees are required to work 20 hours of overtime each month.
“I don’t like to ask our employees to work mandatory overtime,” he said. “But l like less to have veterans waiting,” he said.
Clark said VBA has two respite periods during the year where employees are not required to work mandatory overtime.
“We have four weeks during the summer, and an additional four weeks during the holidays,” he said.
During the press conference, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said VA is using several tools to handle the anticipated claims uptick, including hiring, training and automated decision support tools.
“We have heard from the workforce, and from our union partners, that the mandatory overtime is demanding,” he noted.
VBA field employees are required to work in the office two days per two-week pay period with an option to telework the rest of the time. McDonough said the telework option has allowed VA to “manage this very high rate of [claims processing] performance.”
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.