It’s kind of stating the obvious, but if a government shutdown comes to pass, the workers who process disability claims would be furloughed and recent progress to reduce the huge claims backlog would come to a halt, and possibly start reversing.

While most employees who work in VA health-related jobs would stay on the job (the Veteran’s Health Administration is exempt and has its funding for next year already in place), those who handle claims would not be protected and be covered by a 2011 contingency plan, the Washington Post determined.

In that scenario, the VA’s 57 regional offices handling present inventory of 736,000 disability claims around the country would likely have limited services, and the Veterans Benefits Administration would be unable to process education and vocational rehabilitation benefits.
“Veterans will be able to file claims electronically, but not in person because VA Regional Offices might be closed to all but essential personnel,” said Joe Davis, spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars. “That also means no one will be working to process the claims, which means the backlog will continue to grow.”

Below is our weekly update on the status of the backlog, The data is extracted from the weekly “Monday Morning Workload Report” released by the VA. The most recent cover the week ending Sept. 14.