Many 9/11 victims seek our help amending claims submitted to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). An amendment is any change or update to an existing claim. If you have one or more of the following circumstances, you may have grounds to amend your claim:
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You are diagnosed with a new 9/11-related injury or condition or the World Trade Center Health Program certifies you for a condition with which you have not previously been certified.
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Your injury or condition substantially worsened, resulting in a new loss for which you have not been compensated.
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You have incurred additional economic losses due to your eligible injury or condition.
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You have new information supporting your claim that was not previously submitted to the VCF and you believe was not reflected in your loss award.
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Your claim was denied or deemed inactive because you did not respond to the VCF’s request for missing information that you can now provide.
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The victim passes away after filing his or her original claim.
One of the most commonly asked questions we receive in reference to claimants’ amendments is: When will a decision be made?
According to the VCF:
[The VCF’s] first priority is to render decisions on claims for those claimants who have not yet received any award. At the same time, we do continue to review amendments and use the same priority order of rendering decisions on older amendments before reviewing newer ones.
How we prioritize the review of an amendment depends on whether we have already made payment on the claim. As a general rule, an amendment on a claim that has not yet been decided (meaning that the claimant has not received any award determination) will not change its priority status. We are basing the priority on the date the compensation form was submitted.
For claims that have already received an award determination, however, our priority order relates to the date of submission of the amendment, and not back to the original compensation form submission date. So, as a general rule, it is better for claimants (and will allow us to consider claims as a whole rather than piecemeal) if amendments are made while the claim is under consideration rather than after an award is already made.
The VCF is currently reviewing amendments submitted prior to May 2015.
If you have been recently diagnosed with a new 9/11-related injury or if the WTC Health Program has certified you for a new condition, you may be entitled to your VCF claim amendment.
We’ll help you assess whether an amendment is warranted; you can reach out to us at (800) 962-9954 or via our contact page.
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