VA says it processed a record 3.1 million disability claims in fiscal 2026

The Department of Veterans Affairs completed 3,111,399 disability compensation claims in fiscal 2026, the most in its history, the agency announced on Oct. 15.

The total surpasses the previous record of 3,001,734 set in fiscal 2025. According to the department, VA had never processed more than 3 million claims in a single year before the current administration took office.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins said in the release that “these record-breaking claims processing numbers prove it,” referring to what he described as historic progress under President Donald Trump.

Faster decisions, smaller backlog

The Veterans Benefits Administration had already crossed the 3 million mark before the fiscal year ended. In a Sept. 22 release, using data as of Sept. 18, VA said the average time to complete a claim decision was 75.6 days in September, compared with 141.5 days on Jan. 20, 2025. The department put the reduction at 46 percent in its October announcement.

VA said it had awarded more than $207 billion in compensation and pension benefits to veterans and survivors with about a week left in the fiscal year.

The agency also reports that its backlog, defined as rating-related claims pending more than 125 days, has fallen by more than 70 percent since Jan. 20, 2025. The department said in its release that the backlog had grown 24 percent under the Biden administration.

As of Oct. 24, the VBA’s claims data page listed 74,448 rating-related claims in the backlog out of 670,845 pending claims, meaning roughly 11 percent of the inventory was older than 125 days. The page does not state the date of that snapshot; the most recent weekly workload report it links is dated Sept. 28. In July, VA said the backlog had dropped below 70,000 for the first time since 2020.

Accuracy and grant rates

VA reported claims processing accuracy of 94 percent, which it called the highest in two years. The VBA grants more than 60 percent of claims submitted, and about 3 percent of its decisions are appealed to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, according to the Oct. 15 release.

The claims figures came alongside other performance data the department has highlighted this month. In an Oct. 21 release, VA said more than 300,000 new veterans had enrolled in VA health care so far in 2026 and that it had opened 43 new health care clinics since January 2025. The department also said it had offered more than 3.4 million appointments outside normal operating hours over that period.

Questions over staffing

The record output comes as Democrats on Capitol Hill have pressed the department over workforce reductions. At a May 20 hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, told Collins the department had lost more than 40,000 employees in fiscal 2025 and had eliminated more than 28,000 positions, including about 1,000 physician jobs. He questioned whether the reductions had cost VA people it needs.

VA, for its part, says it has cut the paperwork required of benefit applicants by nearly two-thirds since January 2025.

Veterans with questions about a pending claim can contact the department through Ask VA.