35-Year Veterans Affairs Error Could Reopen 90,000 Disability Claims

For more than three decades, a quiet computer glitch in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system may have robbed tens of thousands of veterans and their families of disability benefits they legally earned.

Story Snapshot

About 90,000 veterans and survivors could get wrongly closed disability appeals reopened because of the Freund v. Collins class action.
A VA computer system closed appeals as “late” for 35 years, even when paperwork was filed on time.
The proposed settlement forces the VA to audit 28,258 appeal files and notify 64,599 more veterans and families.
There is no automatic cash payout; veterans must get their reopened claims approved to receive back pay.

A 35‑Year Computer Glitch That Silenced Veterans

From December 12, 1990, to February 6, 2025, the VA used a legacy tracking system called the Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System, or VACOLS, to manage disability appeals. That system was supposed to keep track of appeal deadlines and paperwork. Instead, an automated program ran in the background and “cleaned up” the database by shutting down old cases when the computer believed paperwork did not arrive on time. In many situations, veterans had filed their appeals correctly, yet the system still closed their cases.

The VA has now admitted that this glitch wrongly closed or lost tens of thousands of disability appeals over those 35 years. Many affected veterans never got a letter saying their appeal was closed. Some simply stopped hearing from the VA and assumed the process was still moving. Others died waiting. Surviving spouses and dependents are included in the class, because their appeals may also have been wrongly dismissed. This is not a one‑off mistake; it is a long‑running systems failure that blocked benefits for an entire generation.

What the Freund v. Collins Settlement Would Do

The case, Freund v. Collins, was certified as a class action on March 18, 2026, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. The proposed settlement, filed in December 2025, covers appeals closed between December 1990 and February 2025 under the old “legacy” system, not the newer Appeals Modernization Act process. Under the deal, the VA must manually audit 28,258 core class files that have been flagged as likely wrongful closures and reactivate any appeals that were shut down even though a timely substantive appeal was on file.

Beyond that core group, the VA must send individualized notices to 64,599 more veterans and survivors whose files show possible on‑time appeal paperwork but are less clear. Those people get one year from the date of their notice to ask the VA to review their case. If they do not respond in time, their chance at reopening may be lost. Legal experts estimate that more than 90,000 total veterans and families could be affected when you combine the audit group, the notice group, and a still‑unknown number of missed cases. This large number shows how wide the glitch spread.

Back Pay, But No Automatic Payouts

If an old appeal is reopened and approved, the veteran can receive disability pay going all the way back to the original claim date, even if that was decades ago. Some law firms and advocates say this could mean “millions in back pay” overall across the class. But the settlement does not send checks by default. Every reopened appeal still has to go through the normal VA process, with updated medical evidence and ratings. Only after the VA grants the reopened claim would any back pay be calculated and paid.

For veterans and families, this means there is opportunity and risk. There is a path to long‑denied benefits, but it still runs through the same slow, often confusing system that failed them before. Surviving dependents can keep claims alive for veterans who have died, but they will have to gather records and respond to VA letters. Many people on both the right and left already feel that bureaucratic red tape blocks ordinary Americans from justice; this settlement gives them another concrete example of that fear.

Why This Fuels Distrust Across the Political Spectrum

The VA publicly frames the problem as a “system glitch,” not as “wrongful denial.” That language makes it sound like a harmless computer error, not a major failure that harmed real people. Yet the VA’s own Office of Inspector General found that about one in six automated closures were erroneous, a very high rate for a benefits system that people depend on for housing, health care, and food. Calling this a glitch feels small compared to the real‑world impact on veterans who served in war zones and then struggled at home.

For many Americans, this story fits a familiar pattern. Republicans and Democrats argue over ideology, but veterans of all political views see a federal agency that lost their paperwork for decades and is now grading its own homework through an internal audit. Older conservatives who distrust “big government” and older liberals who worry about the “deep state” both can look at Freund v. Collins and see proof that large systems often protect themselves before they protect citizens. The fairness hearing on August 13, 2026, will decide if this settlement is “fair and reasonable,” but the deeper question remains: why did it take 35 years and a class action lawsuit to fix a basic duty to those who wore the uniform?