The Department of Veterans Affairs has processed more disability benefits claims this fiscal year than in any year before it, passing three million by Sept. 18 while cutting the average time veterans wait for a decision nearly in half.
The VA reached the milestone before the Sept. 30 end of fiscal 2026. Its previous record of 3.001 million claims was set at the close of fiscal 2025, leaving the department nearly two weeks to add to this year’s total after it had already passed that mark.
The rise in completed claims has come alongside a sharp change in processing time. In September, the department took an average of 75.6 days to complete a disability claim. On Jan. 20, 2025, the average was 141.5 days. Veterans are receiving decisions nearly 66 days sooner on average, according to the VA’s figures, even as the department handles more claims than it did during the Biden administration.
The number of veterans caught in longer waits has fallen as well. Since President Donald Trump took office, the VA said it has reduced its benefits backlog by more than 70%. The department reported that the backlog had increased 24% under the Biden administration. Together with the shorter average processing time, the decline shows the agency working through older claims while keeping up with a record volume of decisions.
A faster pace has brought another measure into focus: the accuracy of those decisions. The VA put its claims-processing accuracy rate at 94%, its highest in two years. The Veterans Benefits Administration continues to grant more than 60% of claims submitted by veterans, the department said, and about 3% of its decisions are reviewed by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.
The VA did not release a precise fiscal 2026 claims count beyond saying it had processed more than three million and exceeded last year’s record. Its final annual total will be determined when the fiscal year closes. The figures released so far nevertheless mark an unusual combination for the department: more claims completed, fewer claims in the backlog and a shorter average wait for a decision.
Benefit awards have reached more than $207 billion in fiscal 2026, the VA said, with payments covering compensation and pension benefits for veterans and survivors. That sum reflects awards made before the fiscal year has ended.
“Putting Veterans first means making VA benefits faster, better and more convenient, and under President Trump, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in announcing the claims figures.
The department’s report also described continued growth in its health care operations. More than 270,000 veterans enrolled in VA health care during 2026. Since Jan. 20, 2025, the VA has opened 41 health care facilities around the country and offered more than 3.2 million appointments outside normal operating hours.
Those additional appointment times extend the hours in which veterans can receive care through a system handling tens of millions of visits each year. In fiscal 2025, VA providers completed a record 82,083,918 direct care appointments, a 4.1% increase from fiscal 2024. Community care appointments also reached a record, rising 12% to 59,989,662.
The appointment records were set last fiscal year. The new claims record belongs to fiscal 2026, with its final count still to come. By Sept. 18, the VA had already moved beyond last year’s high while reporting faster decisions for veterans seeking disability benefits.