The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund has paid out over $12 billion to the survivors of the terror attacks.
WSHU’s Desiree D’Iorio spoke to the head of the fund, Allison Turkel, about who is eligible to apply, and the changes underway to streamline the claims process.
WSHU: Thanks for taking the time, Allison. First of all, the Victim Compensation Fund is a separate entity from the WTC Health Program but they are related in that the health program has to first certify the illness is related to the attacks, then you can apply for compensation through the VCF. You’re working now on a new application tool called MyVCF. Tell us about that.
Turkel: Yes. MyVCF is going to reduce claim time in substantial ways. One of which is it's going to be so much easier for the claimants to use the system. Ninety-seven percent of what happens will happen in myVCF, within the system itself. Now, the way that our system works is that much of it happens outside of the system. So because of the age of it, a claim gets submitted online, documents are uploaded, but the work that gets done on the claims has to happen outside of the system. Most of the work will happen within the system, and this certainly will help us to speed up and be more efficient with our claims.
It also is going to be much more intuitive for the user. It's going to have a modern interface. There's going to be built-in system guidance, resources and tools. There's a great deal of self-service capabilities that are going to be in there. We're going to leverage automation as much as we can, so that this all becomes extremely efficient. There's going to be checklists, and other dropdowns that are really helpful for the claimants to use. And there'll be an ability for the claimants and for their attorneys if they have an attorney — although by the way, it's not necessary to have an attorney to place a claim — for them to check on the status of their claims as it makes its way through the claims process.
WSHU: And is the plan still to roll out the new MyVCF in early 2024? Do you have a more concise timeframe?
Turkel: No, we don’t have a more concise timeframe. We’ve been working very closely with our technology team on coming up with a viable timeline. As soon as we actually have a date, we will let everybody know.
WSHU: Police and firefighters who worked downtown and became sick are of course eligible, but what other groups might be eligible — people who might not even realize they’re eligible?
Turkel: One of the priorities for me as the special master of the VCF is doing outreach. Who is eligible is not only the police and fire that responded, but all first responders, and all second responders, meaning those that did the cleanup, who put the phones back in place, who put the wiring in, the people who hauled away all of the debris, people who came to volunteer — of which there were many — as well as the people who lived and worked in that area, including journalists. There were so many journalists that covered that incident, day after day after day in that toxic cloud.
It’s New York City— just think about everybody who could have been in the area, including children who were going to school. They have to be within our zone, which is south of Canal Street. And the other people who are eligible, and we don't want to forget about them, are the people in Shanksville, Pennsylvania [where United Airlines flight 93 crashed] and at the Pentagon [where American Airlines flight 77 crashed].
WSHU: All those second responders and just ordinary people — how many might be eligible?
Turkel: We have processed approximately 54,000 claims and paid out approximately $12 billion. However, it is our understanding from the research that's been done that there may be upwards of 400,000 people that may be eligible. And we would like to reach — and I'm not pie in the sky about this — but we would like to reach as many of them as we possibly could.
It turns out that we have claimants in every state and in foreign countries. So people may have been exposed who lived in the area, and now they've left and they might think they don’t have access to this. As many people as possible need to know about this.
WSHU: One myth I’ve heard is that the VCF is only for people who developed a respiratory illness or lung cancer.
Turkel: No, actually, that's not the case. There's been some messaging and sort of misunderstanding that it is either cancers that are certified by the Health Program, or just things that may be like having a lung removed. However, there are other certified conditions. For example, what comes to mind is asthma, but people think, ‘Oh, that might not be serious enough,’ when in fact it might be. And then there's gastrointestinal type issues like GERD. The list of certified illnesses is pretty extensive. Folks can check that information out on the World Trade Center Health Program website to see what is certified.
Because 9/11 happened 22 years ago, folks who have gotten sick, let's say in the past five years, might say to themselves or to their loved ones, ‘Well, that can't possibly be related to my exposure during 9/11.’ And as it turns out, that may not be true. So the best thing to do is to enroll with the World Trade Center Health Program, to see if in fact, the sicknesses that they have are a result of their exposure.
The folks who were exposed to these toxins really do have illnesses at a much higher rate than the general population, so it is important for folks to do the first thing — and this is what we ask everybody to do — is to register with the VCF, and they don't have to be sick. Registrationis super simple. It's about four things they have to fill out, and then they can start to think about the other thing they need to do, which is for them to establish their presence there.
WSHU: Thanks, Allison. Is there anything else people should know?
Turkel: I want to add that when folks hear this, and they start looking for information, we know what a lot of people do is they go online and they use search engines. Sites may come up that are not the official government site of either the VCFor the World Trade Center Health Program. So it is really important to look for ‘dot gov’ on all of these websites.
