Military retirees and veterans that receive benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), will see a 2.8 percent pay raise in their monthly checks, according to Military.com. There’s also been improvements to the VA Appeals Process this year.
The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase, to start in 2019, could equal as much as $369 per month for those at the top of the pay charts, the publication noted.
In 2017, backlog at the VA saw hundreds of thousands of applications waiting to be processed. At the Atlanta VA, 500,000 applications were going to be thrown out due to being incomplete; they were noted as having errors made by the applicants. A whistleblower wrote The White House that the mistakes were actually on the VA.
The backlog of the VA’s pending appeals was also approximately 470,000 deep, according to the Providence Journal.
In August, Congress passed the Veteran Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act that would, according to the VA website:
- Modernize the claims and appeals process
- Include three review options for disagreements with decisions
- Require improved notification of VA decisions
- Provide earlier claim resolution
- Ensure applicants receive the earliest effective date possible
According to the firm Hill & Ponton, the new VA appeals process has undergone the biggest change since the 1980s, and the agency must issue a rating decision for each appeal:
In September 2018, the VA exceeded its goal to deliver 81,000 appeals’ decisions of disability benefits and services to veterans in fiscal year 2018, the Journal noted. That’s 28,000 more decisions than the appeals decisions made in FY2017.
Prior to the VA appeals process changes, the wait for a final decision was six years.
Learn more about the VA appeals process on HillandPonton.com.
