The Veterans Administration (VA) is once again under fire, this time after reports surfaced that a bottleneck at the national archives is delaying benefits claims for 32,00 military veterans. COVID-19 has shut down the National Personnel Records Center, for months. After briefly reopening at low capacity, it has once again shut down except for limited emergency requests. A veteran must get a certified copy of their service record in order to file a claim for benefits, and they are currently unable to do so. Veterans who left the service after 2000 likely have digital archives that can be accessed easily. However, older veterans need to get a photocopy of paper records. That means an archivist must sift through 60 million records and try to find the proper documentation.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/older-vets-cant-get-benefits-because-of-covid-19-bottleneck-11610112128
