VA surpasses record for veterans, survivors granted benefits

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that three-quarters of the way through the fiscal year, it has granted benefits to 1.1 million veterans and their survivors, an all-time record. In total, VA has awarded $137B in benefits, including $127 billion in compensation and pension benefits, to veterans and survivors this year.

To reach this milestone, VA has processed more than 2 million claims in 2024 — another all-time record, on pace to surpass last year’s record by more than 27%. The grant rate for these claims is 64.6% and the average overall disability rating granted to veterans this year to-date is 70%, equating to over $20,000 per year in disability compensation.

VA has been able to deliver more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before largely thanks to the PACT Act, which was signed into law by President Biden in August 2022 and represents the largest expansion of veteran care and benefits in generations. Of the claims granted so far in FY2024, 655,808 were PACT Act-related.

“Our goal is to make sure every veteran and every survivor gets the benefits they’ve earned for their service to this country,” said VA Under Secretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs.  “These veterans and survivors are now receiving monthly payments for the conditions that followed them home from war or took the lives of their loved ones — and there is nothing, nothing more important than that.”

Overall, VA is now delivering more care and more benefits to veterans in a variety of ways:

·       More veterans are using VA health care: VA is on pace to deliver approximately 127 million health care appointments in 2024, surpassing last year’s all-time record of 120 million appointments. This is partly a result of VA expanding access to VA care for these veterans and decreasing wait times by offering more night clinics, weekend clinics, and appointment slots.

·       More veterans are enrolling in VA health care: 412,867 veterans have enrolled in VA care over the last 365 days, an increase of 27% year over year — and the most since 2017. In total, since the PACT Act was passed, more than 710,000 veterans have enrolled in VA health care, which represents a more than 34% increase in veterans enrolling compared to an equivalent period before the legislation was signed.

·       More veterans are applying for VA benefits than ever before: Thanks to the largest outreach campaign in VA history, veterans submitted 2,433,729 claims applications in 2023 — an all-time record and 39% more than in 2022. Thus far this year, veterans are on pace to submit even more claims — outpacing last year’s record by 2.9%.

·       More veterans report trusting VA: Veteran trust in VA has reached an all-time high of 80.4% — up from 55% when the survey began in 2016. This is based on a survey of veterans who use a wide range of VA services, including health care, disability compensation benefits, memorial affairs, the GI Bill, home loans, and more.

·       When veterans apply for benefits, they are more likely to have their claims granted: Whenever a veteran applies for benefits, our goal is to work with them to gather the evidence to get to yes. Due to this approach, VA has been able to grant benefits for 64.6% of claims, including 75% of PACT Act related claims, a sharp increase from previous years.  

Moving forward, VA will continue to aggressively reach out to veterans to encourage them to come to VA. VA encourages all veterans, family members, caregivers, and survivors to learn more about VA and apply for their world-class health care and earned benefits today.

Veterans and survivors can apply or learn more about the PACT Act by visiting VA.gov/PACT or by calling 1-800-MYVA411.

There is no charge to file a claim with VA. For further assistance with the disability claims process, veterans are encouraged to work with a VA-accredited representative, such as an American Legion-accredited service officers, or contact their state veterans affairs office.