Automated System Often Unjustly Boosts Veterans’ Disability Benefits

BY DANIEL HUANG

An effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs that aimed to speed the processing of disability-benefits applications also loosened controls that prevent veterans from exaggerating symptoms to receive more money, say current and former VA employees.

A software system introduced in 2012 that automates veterans’ disability levels for compensation relies almost solely on a patient’s self-reported ailments, the employees say, even in the face of contradictory information.

While the new system reduced paperwork and increased output, it limited the information that the VA’s employees who determine compensation eligibility and dollar amounts—called raters—can consider, according to these employees.

The result, raters contend: a more inaccurate process that approves higher levels of disability than veterans’ military records, medical histories and other evidence might show—in some cases increasing payments to veterans by thousands of dollars a month.

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