Both the VA and the Veterans Benefits Administration are hiring additional staff to help deal with the increase in claims made by veterans through the newly-passed PACT Act – a bill that will provide the 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits and served after Sept. 11, 2001.
According to an article published by The Hill, “In order to deal with existing backlogs and to ramp up for when PACT Act benefits start being processed, claims processors are required to work mandatory overtime…In addition to hiring new staff, the VA also plans to use money from the toxic exposure fund created by the PACT Act to automate certain parts of the claims processing process to help claims processors make more timely decisions. However, automation is still in the pilot phase.”
Relevant pages: Veterans Disability