Veterans' Family Caregivers Waited an Average 581 Days for Appeal Decisions as VA Delays Grew, Inspector General Finds

Veterans and family caregivers who challenged decisions in the Department of Veterans Affairs' main caregiver support program waited an average of 581 days for an answer in the last nine months of 2025, the VA Office of Inspector General said in an audit released Wednesday. That was longer than the roughly 416-day average the auditors found for earlier years.

The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers pays a monthly stipend and provides health coverage and other benefits to the primary family caregivers of veterans who were seriously injured or became ill in the line of duty and need in-person care. When veterans or caregivers disagree with a decision on eligibility or benefits, such as the stipend amount, they can ask for a higher-level review or file a supplemental claim under the Appeals Modernization Act, or file a separate clinical appeal.

Caregiver Appeals Waits Grew Longer

According to the report, the higher-level reviews and supplemental claims completed from Feb. 11, 2022, through March 31, 2025, took about 416 days on average. Clinical appeals over a longer period took 36 days on average.

Because the program was changing its process during the audit, including an overtime project, auditors pulled newer data. Of 3,284 decision reviews completed from April 1 through Dec. 31, 2025, the average wait was about 581 days, and the longest took 1,348 days, according to a table in the report. Clinical appeals completed in the same period averaged 37 days.

Few of the reviews changed the outcome. About 3 percent of higher-level reviews and about 4 percent of supplemental claims were granted in the first period, and about 4 percent of each in 2025, the report says.

A data table in the report shows the program received 7,391 of these decision reviews from fiscal 2021 through March 2025, and 3,677 of them were still not finished as of April 1, 2025. In July 2026, auditors counted 703 reviews waiting for action in the program's mail system, some submitted as far back as October 2025. That backlog was about 56 percent smaller than in December 2025, according to the report.

No Deadline and No Public Numbers

The inspector general said the waits were long "partly because" the Caregiver Support Program has no timeliness goal for these reviews, unlike clinical appeals; VA policy says first-level clinical appeals should be decided within 45 business days. The audit also found the wait times were not publicly reported, leaving veterans and caregivers without information to choose between appeal options.

Program leaders told auditors that their own method, which projects processing times from recent workload averages, differs from the inspector general's. The report says that method "is not effective at determining how long veterans waited for a decision."

The audit also found VA's forms and guidance do not clearly say that a supplemental claim must be filed within one year of a decision letter to keep the earliest possible effective date. "As a result, veterans and caregivers could be missing out on earlier effective dates, resulting in fewer benefits being received," the report says.

What VA Says It Will Do

The inspector general made three recommendations: set timeliness goals, develop a plan to clear the backlog and report progress publicly, and fix the one-year language on VA Form 10-305 and in VHA guidance. The Veterans Health Administration concurred with all three, according to the report, and gave December 2026 as the target to put timeliness goals in place.

In its written comments, VHA said the program has made "continuous process improvements and refinements" since it expanded appeal options in 2021.

Sources: Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, "Audit of Caregiver Support Program Appeals Processes," Report 25-01406-224 (Oct. 28, 2026), report page: https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/audit/audit-caregiver-support-program-appeals-processes ; full report (PDF): https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-10/vaoig-25-01406-224_final.pdf