Characteristics of Claims
Claims by era
Total pending claims
- Other era claims make up 1% of the total inventory.
- Post-9/11 (Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts) claims make up 47% of the total inventory.
- Gulf War (1990s conflict) claims make up 20% of the total inventory.
- Peacetime (the end of Vietnam to the Gulf War) claims make up 13% of the total inventory.
- Vietnam War claims make up 19% of the total inventory.
Total backlogged claims
- Post-9/11 (Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts) claims make up 44% of the backlog.
- Gulf War (1990s conflict) claims make up 19% of the backlog.
- Peacetime (the end of Vietnam to the Gulf War) claims make up 14% of the backlog.
- Vietnam War claims make up 21% of the backlog.
- Other era claims make up less than 2% of the backlog.
Original vs. supplemental claims
The current inventory of compensation claims contains two types of claims:
- Original claims, which are those submitted by Veterans of all eras who are claiming disability compensation or pension from VBA for the first time.
- Supplemental claims, which are those submitted by Veterans of all eras who have previously filed for disability compensation or pension with VBA. For example, where a Veteran’s condition has worsened, they may file for review to see if they are entitled to greater compensation, and supplemental claims include Veterans already on the rolls who claim a new condition.
Contentions and claims complexity
- The number of claims is magnified by growing complexity. There has been a 200 percent increase over the last 10 years in original claims containing eight or more specific medical issues, or contentions.
- The number of individual disabilities claimed has doubled in just the last five years.
More about original and supplemental claims in inventory
- 63% of pending claims are supplemental and 37% are original.
- 81% of Veterans filing supplemental claims are receiving some level of monetary benefit from VBA.
- 10% of Veterans filing supplemental claims already have a 100% disability rating (i.e., they receive $2,800 or more per month) or qualify for Individual Unemployability and are compensated at the 100% disabled rate.
- 48% of Veterans filing supplemental claims are already rated at 50% disability or higher.
- 34% of supplemental claims are from Vietnam-era Veterans and 26% are from Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Note: This data is updated on a monthly basis by the 10th of each month.