Vietnam Vet Files Class-Action Suit Over Delayed Appeals on Disability Benefits
A Vietnam veteran who has waited years for disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs for claims of post-traumatic stress disorder and exposure to toxic chemicals filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday, seeking to force the department to expedite a growing backlog of benefits claims appeals, including his own.
The case is the first class action filed in the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. The lead plaintiff is Conley Monk Jr., a Marine Corps veteran in Connecticut who said he came under fire in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 and was exposed to Agent Orange, an herbicide used in the war. After receiving diagnoses in 2011 of PTSD and diabetes, which is sometimes associated with exposure to Agent Orange, Mr. Monk applied for disability compensation from the V.A. and was denied. He appealed in 2013.
Now, 20 months later, the department has yet to respond to the appeal, said the veteran, who recently had a stroke and is living in subsidized housing.
“It’s frustrating to be stuck in limbo,” Mr. Monk, 66, said in a phone interview on Monday. “It’s been hard to make ends meet. And we Vietnam veterans are getting older. We can’t wait forever.”
The backlog of benefits claims at the V.A. started rising sharply in 2009, driven by a growing number of claims by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and expanded eligibility for Vietnam veterans with diabetes and PTSD. The backlog peaked in 2013 with more than 600,000 claims.
Determined to clear the backlog, the Obama administration focused staff members on new claims. Since then the number has declined nearly 70 percent. But the number of appeals — claims resubmitted because veterans say they were improperly handled by the V.A. — has risen 17 percent to an all-time high of nearly 300,000, according to the V.A., and the time it takes to reach a decision has grown.
Critics say that the V.A., in its haste to clear the backlog, made sloppy decisions that have clogged the appeals process. The department, in response to the lawsuit, said it was continuing its efforts to reduce the backlog of claims.
“We see wait times of four years or more,” said Joe Moore, a lawyer specializing in V.A. benefits appeals.
Many V.A. staff members who used to review appeals were pulled away to focus on new claims, he said, making several regional medical centers “black holes” where appeals languished.
“It’s mind boggling,” Mr. Moore said. “Sometimes we are just waiting for them to send simple paperwork to the central office, and it takes years.”
The lawsuit claims that the long waits amount to a denial of benefits and asks the court to order the V.A. to make a decision within 30 days on every appeal that has been pending for more than a year if the applicant has a financial or medical hardship.
“Justice delayed for these veterans is justice denied, unconscionably and unacceptably,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, said in an interview Monday. “I hear from veterans every day about this issue. Many of them are close to poverty, struggle with homelessness and health problems. For them, these delays have real-life consequences.”
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