September 11 Victims Compensation Fund: Claims by Survivors Outnumber Those from Responders
The 2023 annual report of the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund (VCF), just released, documents multiple significant developments.
A total of 156,556 people are now registered with the VCF, which was created by the federal government to provide compensation for any person (or the heirs of a deceased person) who suffered physical harm as a result of the terrorist-related aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001, or the debris removal efforts that took place in the aftermath of those crashes. The increase in total enrollment—which includes both those who are currently sick, as well as those who are preserving their rights to file a claim in the future—represents a jump of more than nine percent in a single year.
The VCF awarded $1.8 billion in claims last year, divided among 10,764 beneficiaries, which indicates that the average payout was approximately $167,000. This comes to more than 14 percent of the total of $12.8 billion that the VCF has awarded over its lifetime, which may indicate that both the pace of claims and the amount of awards is quickening. The VCF’s annual report notes that the program spends less than four percent of its total budget on administrative costs.
In a trend that began in 2017, claims by survivors (those who lived, worked, or attended school or day-care facilities within the eligibility zone during the specified time period) once again outnumbered claims by first responders (such as fire and police personnel) last year, with 4,155 claims from the former group and 2,852 from the latter.
In 2023, the VCF received more than 7,000 new claims, divided between 5,965 cases of personal injury or illness and 1,102 death-related claims. During the same calendar year, the fund made determinations on more than 10,000 claims and sent initial award letters for 9,987 cases. The VCF also ruled that 8,287 new individuals were eligible for compensation.
The large volume of new registrants and claimants has translated into a significant backlog in processing claims. According to the VCF, claims submitted prior to September 2022 are currently receiving award decisions, while those filed before October 2022 are now in “substantive review.” Applications submitted between November 2022 and last February have not yet started the review process, but are expected to begin soon. Those submitted after March 2023 are in “preliminary review.”