Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Call Centers Failing Veterans

May 21, 2010 - The Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Inspector General (OIG) performed an audit of the VA's 8 national call centers, their pension call center, and their Internet-based Inquiry Routing and Information System. The OIG found that those veterans calling the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) for help were not being given the attention or accurate information they deserve. Unfortunately, according to the OIG, callers have only a 49% chance of:

• Reaching an agent; and
• Getting accurate information.

 In fiscal 2009, callers were able to reach VBA agents an impressive 76% of the time. According to the OIG's audit, those agents were able to answer 72% of the callers' questions correctly. Combining the VBA's reports on their agent access and those agents' accuracy, the OIG lowered the chances a caller would reach an agent and get accurate information to 49% of the time.

The OIG gave a list of specific reasons why callers could not reach VBA agents more than half the time they called. The OIG concluded the sources for the VBA's poor performance are:

• A complete lack of any central body of leadership and management;
• Not operating under adequate performance standards and sufficient enough information to measure timeliness and accuracy;

• A complete lack of sufficient training; and
• An efficient call-routing system.

 Fiscal 2009 saw 74.1 million callers attempting to reach the VA's 8 call centers and 24% of these calls received a busy signal or were on hold when they hung up. The hang-ups resulted from the calls never being routed anywhere. Worse, the VA never held any agents accountable for their poor performance. VA representatives agreed to follow all of the OIG's recommendations in their report.

Veterans should never have to deal with this type of treatment when reaching out for help. Hopefully the VA will implement the necessary changes sooner rather than later.