As acknowledged by VBA, excessive claims inventories have resulted in long waits for veterans to receive decisions on their claims and appeals. Although this may have reduced short-term production, it should enable VBA to increase production in the long term by enhancing the proficiency of new staff. Some Progress Made, but Meeting Production and Inventory Goals Will be Challenging

VBA has made some progress in improving its production and reducing its inventory but will be challenged to meet the production and inventory goals it has set for fiscal year 2002. Specifically, the Secretary’s end of fiscal year 2003 goals are to complete accurate decisions on rating-related compensation and pension claims in an average of 100 days and reduce VBA’s inventory of such claims to about 250,000. To achieve these goals, VBA is focusing on increasing the number of claims decisions its regional offices can complete. VBA expects to increase production in the second half of the fiscal year. VBA will have to cut its average claims processing time by more than half – from an average of 224 days in the first half of fiscal year 2002 — to meet the 100 day goal. Veterans Benefits Administration: Problems and Challenges Facing Disability Claims Processing. Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: Department of Veterans Affairs.
What GAO Found

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will provide $25 billion in compensation and pension benefits in fiscal year 2002 to more than three million veterans, dependents and survivors. For years, the compensation and pension claims process has been subject to long long waits for decision and large claims backlogs. VA's goal for fiscal year 2003 is to complete accurate decisions on rating-related claims in an average of 100 days. To achieve this, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is focusing on increasing production of rating decisions and reducing the inventory of claims to about 250,000. As of the end of March 2002, VBA was completing claims in an average of 224 days and had an inventory of about 412,000 claims. VBA is trying to significantly increase regional offices' rating decision production to reduce the inventory, and, in turn, reduce the time required to complete decisions. VBA expects to increase production by hiring more staff and increasing the proficiency of new staff. Although VBA has recently increased its production and reduced its inventory, meeting its production and inventory reduction and its timeliness goals will be challenging.