VA's Top Technology Officer Say Disability Claim System Can't be Fixed

Full Article at: VA official: Disability claims system ‘cannot be fixed'
"The Veterans Affairs Department's chief technology officer said Thursday that

"In my judgment, it cannot be fixed," said Peter Levin. "We need to build a new system, and that is exactly what we are going to do."

Levin's comments came at a meeting organized by the House Veterans' Affairs Committee to toss around ideas for repairing a system that has a backlog of about 1.1 million claims awaiting decisions and an error rate on claims of 17 to 25 percent, depending on who is counting.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Va., the veterans' committee chairman, described the system as an "insult to veterans" who, on average, wait six months for an initial decision on benefits and who can wait for years if the decision is appealed.

"It looks like we are going backwards rather than forward," Filner said. "No matter how much we raise the budget, no matter how many people we hire, the backlog seems to get bigger."

"People die before their claim is adjudicated. They lose their home. Those lost their car," Filner said."