VA disability benefits: actions needed to address challenges reserve component members face accessing compensation

Abstract: DOD and VA partially addressed challenges reserve component members face accessing disability compensation. Disability compensation claims generally must include evidence of a health condition that developed during military duty and led to a disability. Stakeholders—who study or work with reserve component members—identified challenges related to reserve component members' timely documentation of their health conditions and VA claims processors' ability to obtain evidence to support their claims. For example: All 15 stakeholders told GAO that reserve component members do not always understand the importance of immediately documenting health conditions to support any future disability compensation claims. DOD and VA guidance does not address this knowledge gap. Thirteen stakeholders and several claims processors told GAO that finding evidence needed to support reserve component claims, such as service dates, is difficult. One form lists active-duty service but not reserve component members' two-week annual training. DOD designed a new form that will list dates of annual training, but the military services have not fully applied sound planning practices to implement it. VA claims processors also lack a reliable data source for the dates of monthly weekend drills. Guidance on documenting health conditions, efficient rollout of DOD's new form, and better VA data on service dates could help reserve component members prove that their disabilities are connected to their military service. Without this proof, VA claims processors will likely deny disability compensation claims.

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