VA to deploy automated tool to speed up vets' education benefits

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the tool will make a "big difference" in the processing of education claims. Susan Walsh/AP

DURHAM, N.C. -- Next month, the Veterans Affairs Department will deploy an automated tool that will make a "big difference" in the processing of claims for education benefits for veterans attending college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told Nextgov late last week.

Speaking at the dedication of a memorial at Duke University for graduates who have lost their lives on active duty since World War II, Shinseki said VA still has a "a slight backlog" of claims for education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill, which led him to order emergency payments to veterans early this month. But Shinseki said he believed the surge of claims under the GI Bill waiting to be processed has passed.

Keith Wilson, director of the Office of Education Service at the Veterans Benefits Administration, testified at a House hearing on Oct. 15 that since May, VA had provided 210,000 veterans with certificates of eligibility for education benefits. More than 44,500 students have received payments under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Wilson said the agencystill needed to process 30,000 certificates of eligibility.

Claims under the Post-9/11 GI Bill are processed manually using four separate IT systems that do not interface with each other, Wilson testified. Claims examiners use an automated front-end tool to determine eligibility, entitlement and benefits, and a different back-end tool to enter payment information into VA's Benefits Delivery Network.

The tool VBA is slated to deploy in mid-November will provide increased functionality and additional automation for processing education claims, Wilson said.

VA also currently has 400,000 pending disability claims, with more than 140,000 of them backlogged for more than 125 days. Shinseki told Nextgov he has made solving information technology problems at VBA "a top priority" to help eliminate the backlog.

Another VA priority, Shinseki said, is development of the Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record in cooperation with the Defense Department. This will include an agreement between the two departments to establish a registration process for systems they use, so active-duty service members can easily transition health records and benefit information to VA when they leave the military.

Though the Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record has been touted as an avenue for "seamless transition" of records between the two departments, Shinseki hesitated to use the term, saying achieving that goal will take some time.