By Leo Shane III | Military Times
Veterans Affairs officials on Tuesday announced staffers had already processed more than 2 million disability benefits claims this fiscal year, the fastest the department has ever reached that mark.
The processing milestone occurred nearly one month earlier than in fiscal 2024 and puts department claims workers on pace for another record-breaking year in terms of total cases completed. The work finished thus far represents almost $120 billion in compensation and pension benefits to veterans and survivors paid out since last October.
In a statement, VA Secretary Doug Collins credited the progress to a refocusing of the department’s mission in recent months.
“VA has reduced the claims backlog and has processed these claims faster than ever for a simple reason: We’re focused on getting results for veterans,” he said. “We are just getting started in our mission to help veterans, families, caregivers and survivors get the care and benefits they’ve earned.”
The department’s progress on processing disability claims dates back to before the change in presidential administrations. VA has set new records in total claims processed each of the last three fiscal years, reaching 2.5 million cases completed in fiscal 2024.
The rise has come in part because of the steadily increasing total number of claims filed annually, which at times has outpaced processing capacity.
The 2022 PACT Act expanded the number of veterans eligible to apply to VA for compensation related to military toxic exposure injuries, adding hundreds of thousands of cases to the annual counts.
Related to that, VA’s disability claims backlog — which counts the total number of first-time benefits cases that take more than four months to complete — rose to more than 400,000 cases in late 2023, up from about 70,000 cases before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.