Statement from 911 Health Watch on the Release of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund 3rd Annual Report

October 18, 2014

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, has just released its 3rd Annual Report along with updated statistics on its progress to date. Below is the Statement by 911 Health Watch on its release.

For Immediate Release from 9/11 Health Watch
October 17th, 2014
Press Contact: Benjamin Chevat
(646) 634-9103
ben.chevat@911healthwatch.org

Statement of 911 Health Watch on the Release of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund 3rdd Annual Report

“Today, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund released its 3rd Annual Report along with updated statistics on its progress to date. The report shows that over the past year, The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund has made clear and substantial progress has been made, in both processing claims and making determinations for compensation for injured and ill 9/11 Responders, Survivors and their families.

The Special Master and the staff of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund are clearly continuing on the right track, because of the many changes they have made in procedures over the last year and with the additional resources that they have brought to bear.

In addition, the report itself contains additional levels of information that are providing greater information and transparency on the operations of the Victim Compensation Fund, which will help injured 9/11 Responders, Survivors and their families better understand the progress that is being made and what still needs to be done.

911 Health Watch wants to commend the Special Master and her staff for the work they have done to improve the processing of claims and for the cooperative efforts they have made with the 9/11 Responder and Survivor community. We hope that this progress will continue and that the VCF will be able to further increase the number of compensation determinations in the coming months.”

Here are some of the statistics that the Special Master reported on:

  • The report states that as of September 30th, 2014, of those who registered with the VCF, 16,833 have submitted eligibility forms. According to Ms. Birnbaum, of those 16,833, 8,517 have been determined eligible for compensation, while 7,438 claims cannot be decided because they are missing either signed permission to obtain claimants’ records, adequate medical documentation, or sufficient proof that claimants were at the site.
  • Of the 8,517 claimants who were determined eligible, 4,958 have submitted compensation forms, for which 2,042 compensation decisions have been made.
  • As of the September 30th, 2014, the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has made determinations for compensation of $551,269,835 million dollars — an increase of $57,503,162 since the beginning of September.
  • Of the 2,042 claims that have had determinations made, 1,755 have been for responders, 260 have been non responders and 27 have been injured residents.

To see the new updated annual report you can go here.

To download a pdf of the report you can go here.

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