Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act Statement on the Release of Statistics from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund

New claims data underscores urgent need for Congressional action

Washington—Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act released the following statement on the new statistics unveiled by the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

“Today’s announcement by Special Master Sheila Birnbaum shows that the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF)  is proceeding with the processing of claims at an increasing rate and is moving forward to fulfill its mandate.  We want to thank the Special Master and her staff for the hard work they have done to get to this point.

“But the announcement today also demonstrates that Congress must take action to make sure that the Program can fully compensate all of the claims it has determined should be paid and those that are still waiting for decisions.

“It is clear from today’s report that Congress did not provide the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund with sufficient resources to adequately compensate all of those with injuries.   That given what the program has available to compensate injured and ill 9/11 responders and survivors with chronic respiratory and gastric illnesses and cancers, many of which are disabling, all those who have received or will receive determinations will face reductions in their compensation of up to 50% to 60%

“According to the statistics released today, the VCF has increased its determinations to 5,636 claims out of a total 19,721 that have started the process as of June 30th 2015.  That the program has so far determined as eligible 11,770 claims from injured responders and survivors and has determined as ineligible 942 claims. However, despite resolving roughly a quarter of the claims it can process, the VCF has made determinations amounting to 1.3 billion dollars to date, or just about half of the funds it has available to compensate the injured and their families.

“Congress needs to act and pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization (HR. 1786/ S.928) which will provide the funding needed to make sure these heroes and heroines, who are in every state, will get the help they need, deserve and are expecting.”

“Today’s release of state information on the numbers of those seeking compensation makes clear that this is a national problem from the 240 determined eligible in North Carolina to the 940 in Florida.”

Here is information by state for VCF: https://www.renew911health.org/vcf-participation-by-state-june-2015/

Below is a summary of the statistics released today.

As of June 30, 2015, the VCF had:

Total eligibility submissions to VCF:             19,721

Eligibility claims approved:                            11,770

Eligibility claims denied by VCF:                       942

Compensation decisions made:                          5,636

To read Special Master Birnbaum’s Statement:

http://www.vcf.gov/blogprogstatsjuly2015.html

To see newly released Statistics:

http://www.vcf.gov/pdf/VCFProgramStatistics07202015.pdf

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