The Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday that the backlog of disability compensation and pension benefit claims is consistently below 100,000 for the first time since 2020, the department said in a news release.
The release said the backlog was last this low in May 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term. The department said it has cut the backlog by 63 percent since Trump returned to office in January 2025, after it rose 24 percent during the Biden administration.
The department said the claims inventory stood at 264,717 when Trump returned to office and that the lowest recorded backlog during his first administration was 64,783 on Dec. 21, 2019. VA defines a backlogged claim as one pending more than 125 days, the release said. The department said 70 percent of claims were more than 125 days old in 2013; that figure is now 17 percent.
“VA’s claims processing productivity is the highest it has ever been, and we look forward to continuing to provide record levels of service to Veterans and VA beneficiaries,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins said in the news release. The release also highlighted other accomplishments, including opening more than 30 new VA health care facilities, expanding veterans’ access to care, and permanently housing more than 50,000 homeless veterans in fiscal 2025, the highest total in seven years.
“Under President Trump, VA is providing Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors all of the benefits they have earned as quickly and conveniently as possible,” Collins said in the release. Collins also wrote on X, “We’re not just talking about the American Dream; we’re making it more accessible for the heroes who defended it,” the department said.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
