Veterans Documents Mishandled, Hundreds of veterans claims were filed late or not at all

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Virginia Department of Veterans Services says the benefit claims of some 700 veterans found in the storage unit of a fired employee had been filed late or not filed at all.

Others were missing medical and/or personnel records needed to process the claims.

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Officials said this week that they are working to correct the damage caused by more than 5,000 "personally identifiable" records of Virginia veterans found in 20 to 30 boxes of documents in the unit.

Thomas Herthel is the Veteran Services' director of benefits. He tells The Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/2gvXYHW ) the agency has scanned and uploaded the documents into the VA system.

Herthel says most of the affected compensation claims are based on medical disabilities that resulted from, or were made worse by, military service.


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