9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Has Awarded Over $2.8 Billion to Almost 17,000 Claimants According to Most Recent Report

In July, the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) released its quarterly report discussing the progress of its work processing claims and granting awards for compensation to those who have suffered from illness and injury or lost a loved one as a result of the September 11^th attacks.

Thousands of victims, first responders, and recovery workers as well as their families have received compensation from the Fund to help them with the challenges they face every single day. Thousands more are waiting for determinations from the VCF as to their claims for compensation.

In releasing the report, VCF Special Master Rupa Bhattacharyya noted that “the rate of claim filing has not subsided, underscoring yet again the importance of this program to those who continue to suffer as a result of the 9/11 attacks.”

The statistics in the report reflect the breadth and scope of that suffering and the VCF’s efforts to bring some comfort to claimants and their families:

• As of June 30, 2017, the VCF has made 21,448 eligibility decisions, finding 16,942 claimants eligible for compensation.
• The VCF has made award determinations on 13,413 of those claims at a total value of $2,818,804,225.81. Since this amount exceeds the $2.775 billion originally appropriated when the Zadroga Act was passed in 2011, funds currently being awarded come from amounts appropriated under the hard-fought 2015 renewal of the Zadroga Act.
• Of the 16,942 eligible claims:
  • 2,156 were claims with cancer as the only listed condition,
  • 12,194 claims did not list cancer as an eligible condition, and
  • 2,592 claims were for both cancer and non-cancer conditions.
• 65 percent of the over 2,500 claims which had been submitted prior to the end of 2015 have now been resolved, meaning that all claims from 2015 or earlier should be resolved by the end of this calendar year.
• There are 4,885 claims that have not yet been decided and are either under substantive review by a claim reviewer, or have been screened for completeness of the original submission and are now in queue awaiting assignment for substantive review.

At Turley, Hansen & Rosasco, we have been helping 9/11 victims with VCF claims since the Fund’s inception. While we are happy to note that claim processing times appear to have been reduced and the fund has made progress reducing the backlog of older claims, the claim process can still be lengthy, even more so if a claim is submitted without required information and sufficient supporting documentation.

Reducing delays caused by incomplete applications is just one reason that over 80% of claimants applying for VCF compensation choose to be represented by an attorney.

Since the passage of the original Zadroga Act in 2010, Turley, Hansen & Rosasco has recovered over $75 million in 9/11 victim compensation for over 1200 clients.  We are the only law firm in the nation that focuses exclusively on representing victims and first responders for their 9/11 related illnesses and injuries. Please call us at 1-855-WTC-INFO (982-4636) or fill out our contact form to schedule a free claim review today.