VA DISABILITY CLAIM STATUS IN LIMBO? THANK THE PACT ACT & 113,000 APPLICATIONS
Hundreds of thousands of people are seeing delays in their VA disability claim status. After the PACT Act was passed in August 2022, allowing Veterans to claim disability for a whole host of new conditions related to toxic exposure, 113,000 new applications flooded into the VA’s disability claim system. Now, the backlog is worse than ever before. More like this:A Full Guide to the PACT Act: How You and Your Loved Ones Benefit
What’s Up With My VA Disability Claim Status?
Notice there’s been no change in your VA disability claim status for some time? You’re not alone. In fact, you’re in very, VERY good company. After the passing of the PACT Act, roughly 113,000 eligible individuals rushed to the VA’s website to file PACT Act-related disability claims. As compared to disability claim submittals in October 2021, October 2022 claims were 19% higher, with the VA receiving an average of 1,000 more claims a day than usual, according to VA Secretary Denis McDonough. If you submitted a claim a while ago and noticed there’s little to no information on it, that’s not an error – it’s by design. Though the VA is already accepting applications, they won’t process them until January 2023. This gives the VA time to hire more people to review the massive influx of claims they were expecting. Already, the VA has started an effort to hire approximately 2,000 new employees to process claims, and they’re utilizing a new automatized system to handle some simpler claims. The system, when implemented in 2021, reduced the average VA disability claim time wait by 98 days for some claim types. The hope is that the system will be able to relieve the burden of the 113,000 new applications and allow claims to be processed and approved in a more timely fashion.
The Impact of Existing Backlogs
VA disability claim wait time is already pretty abysmal. According to the VA’s website, the average time for a VA disability claim to be processed was a whopping 152 days, or almost five months. Some have even ended up having to wait up to a year or more for their claim to go through. In October 2019, the VA made a goal of eliminating the backlog by the end of 2022, which will, quite obviously, not be achieved now thanks to PACT Act disability rating claims. The new expected goal is closer to the end of 2023 or 2024, even with the addition of 2,000 extra claims personnel. Once January 2023 arrives, don’t expect your claim to be processed immediately. In fact, the wait time will likely be the same as the current average, around five months, for your claim to go through. Though we hope that the extra personnel may help to decrease these times and alleviate the backlog leading up to PACT Act claim processing, we can’t get our hopes up.
Alternatives to VA Disability Claims
If you’re frustrated with your never-moving VA disability claim status, there are other avenues you can pursue. The Veterans Benefits Administration encourages Vets seeking disability to also send claims through the Appeals Modernization Act (AMA). The AMA has three appeal lanes that allow Vets to streamline the process of receiving their benefits. The lanes are supplemental claim, BVA appeal, and high-level review. For most AMA claims, the wait time only takes up to a max of 60 days, with a minimum average of around 40 days. Board appeals could take up to five years, however.
Checking Your VA Disability Claim Status
After you’ve submitted a VA disability claim, whether it was for a PACT Act disability rating or not, you can check on your status directly via the VA’s website. Click this link to sign in and see what stage your claim is currently at. You can track the status of several types of claims using this tool, such as:
- Disability.
- Survivors pension.
- Monthly compensation.
- Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.
- Burial allowance.
- Healthcare.
- Life insurance.
- Home loans.
- Grants.
- VR&E.
Check your status by going to the top right corner of the page after you’ve signed in and clicking “My VA.” Then, scroll down until you see “Track Claims.” Here will be a list of all the claims you’ve submitted. Next to each will be a button that says “View Status,” which will show you more information about your claim and documents you’ve submitted for it. It will also give you the contact information for your VA claim representative. Keep in mind that you may not see all of your claim information if you’ve submitted it by mail, fax, or in person. If a claim is denied, you can also use that same page to make an appeal. If you want to talk to a human about your VA disability claim status, call 1 (800) 827-1000 for more info Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET. Related read:How To Apply for VA Disability & What You Need To Know
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