Source: Veterans Affairs
WASHINGTON, DC — The end of 2024 saw a record number of servicemembers filing VA benefits claims related to military sexual trauma. According to VA leaders, that is the result of increased outreach by the department.
This rise in claims submissions is accompanied by a higher rate of approval and better coordination between VBA and VHA, though improvements in that area have been more delayed than some legislators would have liked.
In FY 2204, VA received more than 57,000 MST claims, an 18% increase over 2023. In the first three months of FY 2025, VA received more than 10,000 claims—a 23% increase from that period last year.
“Since 2010, VA has quadrupled the amount of completed claims, meaning more veterans are being served, opening doors to healthcare and other benefits and services,” said VA Assistant Deputy Under Secretary Kenesha Britton at a press conference late last year.
Approval rates for MST claims have risen significantly over the last decade, from 43% in 2011 to 63.6% in 2024. According to Britton, this increase is due in part to a much better understanding of MST and improvements in how VA treats survivors.
In 2021, VA created an MST Journey Map, which plots out the critical moments before, during, and after a veteran interacts with VA. That has allowed the department to better understand the experience from the veterans’ perspective, and to recognize and address pain points that exist in the process, Britton said.
“We will continue to apply trauma-informed principles, partnering with VHA clinical experts to ensure survivors are treated with care and sensitivity and working to reduce or eliminate retraumatization while engaging with VBA,” she explained. “We’re building cultural competency among claims processors and prioritizing their well-being to ensure they’re equipped to handle these sensitive and complex cases. … We want every survivor to know that help is available.”
To that end, between September 2023 and December 2024 VA held more than 3,500 outreach events dedicated solely to MST outreach. The PACT Act also had an impact on MST claim rates, with 41% of the current MST claims workload being attached to additional PACT-related claims, Britton said.
“The secretary gave us a goal—a very clear goal—of working to move VA to meet veterans in their lives rather than making them adjust to VA and our needs, and that is in part what we have been doing through this extensive outreach,” said VBA Under Secretary Josh Jacobs.
Legislation in recent years has also allowed VA to make it easier for MST survivors to come forward. The trauma-informed communications principles now incorporated into MST claims processing is part of that. In addition, reforms have been made to appoint a single senior executive to oversee the MST workload, consolidate all MST claims processing to a single operations center and create a memorandum of agreement with DoD that allows VA unrestricted access to reports of military sexual assault.
“These efforts are having an impact on the lives of survivors,” Jacobs declared.
Despite these improvements, VA is moving too slowly, according to senior Republicans on the Senate and House VA Committees. In November, these legislators wrote to VA Secretary Denis McDonough asking about delays in the implementation of certain elements of the Military Sexual Trauma Claims Coordination Act. The legislation was passed in 2022 and requires VBA and VHA to better coordinate on MST claims.
Specifically, the act requires VBA to automatically notify VHA when a veteran who has suffered from MST and is enrolled in the VA healthcare systems files an MST-related claim. According to the legislators, VA informed them that the notification system would not go live until January–five months later than the bill specified.
VA let them know that an interim process was in place to inform VA providers daily about veterans who have filed MST claims and that the data would “encourage providers to offer additional support for veterans pursuing claims,” the legislators said.
“It is our belief that these efforts fall short of Congressional intent,” they wrote to McDonough. “It should not take an act of Congress to compel VA to do more for veterans who have suffered from MST.”
