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Veterans & National Security · Report · File No. 261111-675

On Veterans Day, VA claims are faster but staffing gaps and errors persist

Two years into Trump's second term, the VA decides disability claims in about half the time. Its staff is smaller, and reviewers are sending back more decisions for errors.

By the National Desk · · 3 min read

Every quote in this story (1) was matched word for word against its source. How we work

My clippings
Doug Collins
Doug Collins. Photo: Unknown photographer, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Public domain

On Veterans Day, Newsweek took stock of how veterans have fared since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. Its answer is mixed. Disability claims are moving faster and more appointments are being delivered, but the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has lost staff and faces questions about errors 1.

Faster claims, with an error warning

The VA says the average time to decide a disability claim fell from 141.5 days when Trump took office to 75.6 days in September 2026, a drop of almost 47 percent. It also says it processed a record 3.11 million claims in fiscal year 2026 1.

VA Secretary Doug Collins credited the president. Newsweek reported that the VA says it cut its claims backlog by "more than 70 percent" 1.

But a new investigation by The Beam, a newsroom at Arizona State University's Howard Center, found that evidence-collection errors found on review rose from more than 66,000 in fiscal 2021 to more than 329,000 in fiscal 2026. The share of claims sent back by higher-level reviewers rose from about 23% to 35% 12.

From Channel GOP60 Minutes presses Trump on missing health planDonald Trump · 30K plays · captioned, with the source named

The errors rose as the VA expanded Automated Decision Support, software that gathers and summarizes medical records. Human staff still decide eligibility and ratings. The VA does not publish error rates for the tool, and errors are tracked only when a veteran appeals 12.

The VA disputes any link and blames a fourfold rise in appealed denials. The VA plans to use the tool on 90% of claims by the end of 2027 2.

Mark Takano
Premature or erroneous denials lead to more appeals where timelines are measured in years and not months.
Mark Takano, Ranking Democrat, House Veterans' Affairs Committee, D-Calif.2

A smaller VA workforce

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress's watchdog agency, counted just over 480,000 VA employees in December 2024 and about 445,000 in January 2026. That is a drop of more than 34,800 1.

The VA's inspector general reported that severe staffing shortages at VA health facilities rose from 2,959 in fiscal 2024 to 4,712 in fiscal 2026, about 59 percent. All 139 facilities surveyed reported shortages. The figures reflect jobs officials called hard to fill, not confirmed vacancies, and were not independently verified 1.

Even so, the VA says it completed a record 82.68 million direct-care appointments in fiscal 2026. It also reported 67.42 million community care visits with outside providers, up 25.5 percent from fiscal 2024 1.

Access problems remain. An August inspector general report found 20 percent of community mental health appointments missed the 30-day standard, with patients waiting an average of 56 days. Those reports covered both the Biden and Trump years, so they cannot show whether delays worsened 1.

Homelessness and jobs

Official counts showed 32,495 homeless veterans in January 2025, down from 32,882 a year earlier. A November analysis by the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimated a 7.8 percent drop from January 2025 to January 2026 1.

The VA says it permanently housed 48,968 veterans in fiscal 2026, below the 51,936 housed in 2025. Trump has pledged to end veteran homelessness. Newsweek said that goal is still some way off 1.

That matters because the speed of a decision means little if the decision is wrong. A veteran who has to appeal waits much longer, and Takano's warning goes to that point. What happens next depends in part on whether the VA hires 2,000 more claims processors in fiscal 2027, as it has said it will 12.

The Record

  1. The VA introduced Automated Decision Support to summarize evidence for claims raters 2.
  2. Trump returned to the White House; the VA's average claim decision time was 141.5 days 1.
  3. The VA reported an average claim decision time of 75.6 days for September 2026 1.
  4. The Beam reported evidence errors rose from over 66,000 in fiscal 2021 to over 329,000 in fiscal 2026 2.
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Sources

  1. Newsweek, “Are Veterans Better or Worse Off After 2 Years of Trump?” (2026-11-11). newsweek.com/are-veterans-better-or-worse-off-after-2-years-
  2. Military Times (from The Beam), “As the VA leans on automation, errors in veterans' claims soar” (2026-11-05). militarytimes.com/news/2026/11/05/as-the-va-leans-on-automat

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