Randy’s mother died while waiting for benefits. Adam asked in vain two years ago for help with his brain injury.

Bringing up the question of claims at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Oakland office, and you invite a seemingly endless series of such heartbreaking stories.
Scott Shafer got that response on July 31 when he hosted a KQED Forum about the sluggish bureaucracy there. His guest, Aaron Glantz of The Bay Citizen, documented an average wait time of a year before claims are processed. The center has a backlog of 32,000 claims and 40% error rate, he found.
The department knows about the problem, and is promising to do better. Willie Clark, Veterans Affairs western region director for the VA said the employees there were recently trained to improve their speed. “We’re trying to increase efficiency,” he said. But he pointed out that the volume of claims is huge – about a million a year for the whole system.
It might help if the department caught up with modern times. Only 4 out of 58 offices are computerized, according to Glantz.