by Attorney Mitch Adel
For years our office has been assisting Veterans and their widows qualify for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs to help pay for high costs associated with their long term care, including nursing homes, assisted living and home health care. During that time we have always told clients that 8-10 months is the average time it takes to be approved for benefits (but the VA will pay retroactive from the date of application). This delay often confuses clients.
For years, I have explained that, in my opinion, the reason for the delay is that as more information about this benefit becomes available, more Veterans and widows are applying for the benefit. The more applications, the more time the VA has to invest in weeding through both the claims that will be approved and those that will not. It was recently reported that the VA receives more than 97,000 VA disability claims each month.
Last month the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs conducted a hearing to examine the problem of so many disability claims. Presenter Michael Wacloff stated “we expect the number of compensation and pension claims received to increase from 1,013,712 in 2009 to 1,318,753 in 2011 (a 30 percent increase).” Please review the following website to review additional testimony from the hearing. http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?newsid=595.
Finally, remember that you must coordinate the benefits you receive from VA with other government benefits you may later want or need. Our office has four attorneys who are accredited by the VA to work with veterans and their widows.
