Long but interesting information. The VA has a huge workload, thanks to all who are involved in processing these, I don’t envy you, but I appreciate all that you do for us!

On September 2, the VA’s claims inventory broke its previous record high of 883,000 pending applications set back in 2012. Today, more than a million outstanding claims are sitting in the VA’s claims inventory waiting for review:

As of September 2, 2023: 1,077,288 As of August 5, 2023: 944,142 Difference: +133,146 Daily churn: +6,657 claims Filing a VA claim for benefits this month? You’ll wait about 126-233 days for a response, based on the September 2023 veterans disability benefits statistics report. You should also keep in mind that supplemental claims make up 75% of today’s inventory growth.

September 2023 Veterans Disability Benefits Statistics: Claims Backlog Status

Any claim that’s more than 125 days old counts under the VA’s backlog. The September 2023 veterans disability benefits report’s backlog is actually quite small compared to this month’s total pending VA claims:

As of September 2, 2023: 282,220 As of August 5, 2023: 272,525 Difference: +9,695 Daily churn: +486 claims added to the backlog

The following service members make up most of September 2023’s VA claims backlog:

44% are Iraq as well as Afghanistan veterans 27% are Vietnam veterans 18% are Gulf War-era veterans 9% are peacetime veterans 2% are claims from veterans who served in all other eras, combined