Tag Archives: disability

Open up your own window into your local VA disability backlog


By SB Anderson

The Salt Lake Tribune over the weekend was the latest media organization to take advantage of the awesome database and API tools that the Center for Investigative Reporting has put together on the enormous backlog of veterans’ disability claims.

The image below is a screen grab of the Tribune’s interactive graphic. Click on it to go to the live version.

Salt Lake Tribune interactive VA data graphic

In early May, the Center for Investigative Reporting opened the door for access to its database and APIs, with hopes that local media companies will use it and do (and share) local stories, including success stories.

Details on how to get the data are available here.

At Medill National Security Zone, we also have a handy data dashboard on the VA backlog that you should take a look at; it’s drenched in CIR’s work.

New data viz tool lets you get up close to those in the long queue for VA disability approval


By SB Anderson

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America today launched a great new data visualization tool — The Wait We Carry — that lets you dig into individual detail on some of the thousands of veterans who have been waiting months and months for approval of their disability claims.

Nationwide, 250,000 veterans have been waiting a year or more for approval as the Veterans Benefits Administration has buckled under an enormous backlog that it doesn’t expect to improve much until 2015.

“This tool allows veterans to submit data on backlogged claims so public officials, advocates, journalists, other veterans and members of the public can see how the backlog personally affects new veterans,” the group said in a release today. “’The Wait We Carry’ is an incredibly important resource that puts the focus of the VA Backlog where it belongs: on the individual veterans facing an enduring and straining wait. These people are more than just numbers.”

The project was funded with a $250,000 grant from the Kinight Foundation. 

Details on one veteran:

IAVA details screen
Here’s an overview shot of the interface:

IAVA Datavis Screen Grab

 

Resources to help cover VA disability backlog


By SB Anderson

Over at Medill National Security Zone, we’ve launched a new dashboard with data resources, graphics and links to help you cover the major Veterans Benefits Administration backlog in processing disability claims. Particular credit goes to the great staff at the Center for Investigative Reporting, which has done yoeman’s work staying on top of this issue, along with gathering a pile of data and creating a pile of code that makes it all broadly available. (Such as the interactive graphic, below).  Here are links to our new dashboards:

This map that is updated weekly. It gives stats for the 48 regional VA processing centers, as well as nationwide.

VA to senior officials: no bonuses for you because of disability backlog


By SB Anderson

Bonuses for some Department of Veteran’s affair managers are not being paid because of the enormous backlog of disability claims that has swamped the system, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

The Los Angeles Times reports that Department of Veteran’s Affairs is witholding management bonuses 

“VA spokesman Josh Taylor said Monday that the savings would be used to trim the backlog. He didn’t provide specifics, nor could he say how many people would be affected or how much the savings would be. The bonus withholdings apply only to the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is part of the VA.

“In all, records show that the VA paid its senior executives a total of $2.8 million in bonuses in fiscal year 2011. Three staff members at the VBA received the top payment of $23,091 each.”

Above: The records backlog at one point at the Veterans Benefits Administration inspection of the VA regional office in Winston-Salem, NC.  (The piles have since been cleaned up). There were so many files it threatened the structural integrity of the building.

Earlier OnTheBeat stories about the backlog.

Budget increases for veterans expected from White House this week


By SB Anderson

This should be an up week for veterans and those who advocate for them as the White House is expected to include more money for veterans needs such as health care, employment and education when it releases its proposed FY 2014 budget this week.

The administration pushed out the high-level details on Friday (here’s the fact sheet). Some highlights:

  • $2.5 billion, a 13.6 percent increase, for the Veterans Benefits Administration, to focus on digitizing claims records and processing. The VA faces an enormous backlog of claims and veterans in some part of the country wait longer than a year for their claim to be processed. New York, Chicago, Reno NV, Los Angeles and Phoenix have the longest backlogs, according to data from the Center for Investigative Reporting, which updates its figures weekly. (See chart below for national averages).

  • A 4% increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs, providing $63.5 million in discretionary money.

  • A 7% increase, to $7 billion, for mental health services, including post-traumatic stress disorder and issues related to military sexual assault.Â

  • Permanently extending tax credits for employers who hire veterans.

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SOURCE: Center for Investigative Reporting.

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