UPDATE:
6-08-2009

Well, just as I suspected the number of claims backlog as increased again. The backlog is fast approaching 1 million claims and one of the main culprets has been "reassigned". Great more rewarding poor management with new positions while veterans are dying while they wait for their claim to be processed.

Here is a link to the full artilce http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/926.html?task=view

Now this administration wants to point the finger at the prior administration for this problem well; STOP POINTING THE FINGER AND FIX IT!!! They will probably hire more claims officers and we will get the same result as they did last time, which is an increase of of backlogged claims by more than 100,000. Here is another very great article by the Veterans Today staff which highlights the dis-service of large veteran organizations like the DAV, American Legion, and the VFW have been providing our veterans (http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7190)

Here is a nice excerpt from article that really explains the problem;

"Although President Obama has proposed increasing the VA's budget by 10 percent to $15 billion and as much as $113 billion for fiscal year 2010 as a way of meeting these challenges, the administration still lacks the manpower, data and analysis to properly plan for the funding increase"

GREAT!

UPDATE:
12-01-2008

We find that the director and five top administrators at the VA regional office in New York have been "reassigned". Why did they not get fired? The latest news is, not only did they know documnets were being shredded but it appears that dates on documents were changed.

"A summary of an investigation by the VA obtained by Newsday showed that of 20 claims examined by VA investigators at the New York office during a July visit, 16 had been marked with apparently phony dates to suggest their processing had begun within the required seven days of their arrival."

Original article BY MARTIN C. EVANS |NEWSDAY.COM

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! 16 of 20 claims were reported as have false dates. Currently the VA has a back log of claims that exceeds 800,000. This is an increase of nearly 100,000 since 2007. This leads me to beleave that these numbers are seriously understated. After the VA hired more staff to process the claims and has asked for billions in emergency funding. Still they went and gave bonuses to their upper-management last year. Sounds a lot like AIG only worse!! These people should be prosecuted for falsifying federal documents. They should not be "reassigned to other projects" they should be out on the streets, just like they have put veterans on the streets or in serious financial crisis because of their lack of integrity.

Here is an article that says 41 of the 57 VA regional offices practice claims shredding. The article says "claims included burial and death benefits, notices of clients' disagreements with VA rulings, and documents for education benefits."

VA officials investigate mishandled documents at benefits offices in S.C.

This is the huge misunderstanding between civilians and veterans. Civilians want to believe that our government wouldn't do this to our troops. As written in the Army Times this news "didn’t exactly shock the veterans’ community."  that's because the VA has been doing this kind of crap for years.

Original Post

As if waiting 18+ months for the VA to process claims isn't enough, we now find some VA hospitals have been destroying veterans information vital to their claims for pension or compensation.  I suspect this has been the practice for some time now.  So instead of actually processing the claims or hiring people who to help process the claims, and training current workers to processes claims more efficently the VA will just shred the information for some claims. OUTSTANDING show of support for our troops!! There are WWII veterans in their late 80's who cannot get the pensions because the VA has run out of funding for that (Aid and Attendance) program, Vietnam who cannot get dental work in Loma Linda because they have no funding for that program.  The VA has robbed Peter to pay Paul for years and older veterans are being denied because of lack of funding for their programs. I hope this new administration does more for veterans when they end this war because if they don't fully fund the VA this nightmare will go on for decades.