Fund for September 11 Victims Paid Out $1.84 Billion in 2025
The September 11th Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2025. Slightly more than 192,000 people are now registered with the fund, which was created by the federal government to provide compensation for any person (or the heirs of a deceased person) who suffered physical harm as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, or the debris removal that took place in the aftermath of those events.
The VCF awarded nearly $1.84 billion to roughly 9,800 claimants in 2025 (which translates into an average payout of approximately $183,000), and has cumulatively awarded more than $16.8 billion to 71,000-plus claimants since the current version of the program launched in October 2011. For the eighth consecutive year, claims by survivors (those who lived, worked, or attended school, or child or adult day care facilities within the eligibility zone during the specified time period) were more numerous than those from responders (such as fire and police personnel), by a margin of 6,716 to 3,698.
Among the more striking indicators noted in the VCF’s 2025 Annual Report is the jump in pace of new claims, increasing from an average of 700 per month in 2024 to 900 per month in 2025.
Among the 192,000-plus who have registered with the VCF, the fund has determined that 73,588 are eligible for compensation. Of these, 71,519 (56 percent of whom are responders and 44 percent survivors) have been given financial awards, including payouts for 5,249 deaths. The total number of claims, both processed and awaiting determinations, is 105,975.
During 2025, the fund modified its policy for claimants who have post-treatment complications from prostate cancer. The VCF no longer requires appeals hearings for these survivors in order to increase their prior awards (above a baseline of $200,000), but instead reviews medical records directly to determine whether a further payout is authorized.
The fund is also seeking ways to make it easier for claimants to document their presence within the eligibility zone on September 11, or in the months that followed – a process that is becoming more difficult with the passage of time. The fund’s Special Master, Allison Turkel, notes, “as we get farther from the events of September 11, 2001, it becomes increasingly challenging for claimants to find documents needed to prove their presence at an eligible location and, for many, to clearly remember the details that help the VCF establish their presence. Our team has been working to ease this burden of proof on claimants through new information sharing agreements with various entities,” including unions and government agencies.
First responders are getting new complications from many ailments. Even after all this time.