The Morrison Government is failing to deliver on its commitment to cut waiting times for processing veterans’ claims through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), as veterans continue to experience long delays in receiving entitlements.

In Senate Estimates this week, DVA officials said that waiting times for processing veterans’ claims have continued to increase and it is not handling these as quickly as it would like to.

It was revealed that veterans are waiting two to three months for some initial liability claims and often longer for more complex cases.

In addition, the department conceded it is taking too long just to allocate claims to a delegate, with 80 per cent of claims taking four to five weeks to allocate, and alarmingly it is still taking up to 300 days to allocate some initial liability claims.

In response to Labor’s questions, DVA revealed that 42 per cent of its workforce are sourced through labour hire companies as a result of the Morrison Government’s arbitrary cap on the number of public servants.

This arbitrary staffing cap means taxpayer dollars are going to multinational companies through labour hire fees when they would be better spent on frontline service delivery.

The Government should axe its misguided staffing cap policy and allow departments like DVA to hire the staff it needs to support veterans and address the huge backlog of claims.

Our veterans and their families deserve better.