According to the New York Times, the employees at the Columbia, South Carolina’s VA Regional Office deny Veterans claims because it is faster and helps them meet quotas.
The Times article says it this way:
“They’ve implemented so much stuff, no human can keep up with it all,” said Cindy Indof, a decision review officer who has been with the department for 20 years.
Further, the times said,
“The workers (VA Employees) said those quotas encourage processors to take shortcuts that often lead to mistakes, or to focus on easier cases over complex ones. And when in doubt, processors tend to deny claims, the workers said, because denials are generally faster.”
Even more troubling is the VA Workers’ belief that Shinseki will never be able to reduce the backlog, in spite of his promises to do so:
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 
As having been the recipient of one of those “light-speed” denials I feel that I should opine. I started out with a VSO who is motivated to keep as many POAs under his belt as possible. That is for the NSOs. I believe the County Veteran’s Affairs representatives get paid the same no matter what, and it isn’t much of a salary. Certainly not a professional salary. I don’t think it matters if the claim is denied or approved for the VSOs. They would probably lean toward riding that bull long after the buzzer sounds though.
Of course the easiest and fastest way for the VARO to deny a Veteran’s claim is to truncate their C-file and claim that no SMRs exist. If you go to a VSO to file your claim they will tell you that you need to get a copy of your records; however they won’t wait to file your claim until you have supplied the records. So if a Veteran doesn’t send in a copy of his prior C-file and SMRs as evidence when he files the claim, he is wide open for the “lost in space” syndrome which my VARO seems to be good at. I hear it is referred to as “Igor the shredder” syndrome at other VAROs. Bottom line is that I would rather wait a year for a properly adjudicated claim rather than get a denial in 124 days. A denial by “Speedy Gonzales” that will invariably end up taking 3-5 years to appeal anyway.