American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 18, 2012 – Nearly 1.7
million veterans and service members have registered for the Department of
Veterans Affairs-Department of Defense web portal, eBenefits, which provides
online information and access to a wide variety of military and veteran
benefits resources.
A VA news release issued today says
about 1.67 million users have signed up, and notes the strong pace of
registrations for the site since its launch in October 2009 has allowed VA to
exceed its fiscal year 2012 agency priority goal of 1.65 million user. That puts it on track to meet the 2013 goal
of 2.5 million.
“We know that three out of four veterans
who use VA services want to connect online, so we must be there for them with
the information they need,” Allison Hickey, the VA’s undersecretary for
benefits, stated in the release.
Hickey added that eBenefits “is clearly
becoming the platform of choice for veterans seeking access.”
Veterans and service members new to the
eBenefits website are guided through the registration process to get a
full-access account, called a premier account which allows maximum ability to
update personal information and learn about benefits without having to visit a
VA facility. With the premier account, veterans can access multiple
applications on the secure portion of the website.
A premier account also allows veterans
to check the status of compensation and pension claims filed with VA. This
feature, the most popular within the eBenefits application, had over 700,000
visits in June alone, according to the news release. Overall, visits to the
site have increased 60 percent over the previous year, approaching 2 million
each month.
On July 1, VA introduced its 11th
consecutive quarterly release of improvements to the eBenefits application,
including benefits eligibility email messages to service members as they reach
career milestones and a new Career Center page.
Another key function is a single sign-on
capability for veterans to transition securely between benefits information on
eBenefits and health information on VA’s myHealtheVet website without an
additional log-on.
VA says it has completed a
record-breaking 1 million claims per year during the last two fiscal years and
is on target to complete another 1 million claims in fiscal year 2012.
Even so, the agency acknowledged too
many veterans have to wait too long to get the benefits they have earned, and
that is why VA is aggressively building a strong foundation for a paperless,
digital disability claims system that it says will transform operations and
eliminate the backlog. The VA says the plan will help achieve Secretary Eric K.
Shinseki’s goal of completing veterans’ claims in less than 125 days with 98
percent accuracy in 2015.
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