Today, almost 900,000 veterans across the country currently have claims pending for disability, pension or education benefits; nearly 600,000 of which are considered backlogged by the Department of Veterans Affairs as 125 or more days in process. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting's March report, the average time a veteran must wait before receiving benefits is 273 days, and veterans first claims wait an average of 316 to 327 days. With more than 1 million Americans returning from 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the aging of Vietnam and Korean war veterans with expanded coverage, demand for benefits has increased dramatically, overwhelming the VA's current paper process. The VA must digitize the process now to cut the average wait time to 60-90 days by 2014!
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