Despite warnings from Veterans Benefits Administration officials that this month’s 16-day government shutdown could reverse progress in eating away at an enormous backlog of disability claims, just-released data shows the processing continued, albeit at a slower pace, and the backlog continued to shrink.

VA employees shaved an average of about 3,500 claims a week from the pile of 400,000 claims that were pending for 125 days or more, based on reports released on Monday that include the 16-day shutdown. That is about one-third less than the weekly average in September, but still marked progress that some feared would not come. Overall average days pending for claim completion stayed about the same.

“The VA was able to avoid furloughing its workers who processed the claims during the shutdown, but it did have to stop its mandatory 20 hours of monthly overtime, which has been credited with helping make a dent in the claims backlog.
With the government back open, the mandatory overtime has been extended through at least Nov. 16,” TheHill.com reported.

Below is our weekly snapshot of claims status and two graphics from the VBA’s weekly “Monday Morning Reports” that track claims processing progress.