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In October, the Washington Post reported that it had uncovered “rampant exaggeration and fraud” in the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ disability benefits system.
“Military veterans are swamping the US government with dubious disability claims … exploiting the country’s sacred commitment to compensate those harmed in the line of duty,” the newspaper reported.
But the Post’s claims about American veterans committing disability fraud are fundamentally flawed, according to government documents, legal experts, current and former VA officials, members of Congress, advocates, and veterans themselves.
They say that the Post’s reporting fails to account for the physical and mental toll of sustained military conflict on service members – and improperly casts the actions of several dozen veterans convicted of lying about their disabilities as representative of widespread fraud.
Rather than providing evidence of a pervasive problem, experts say, the convictions show that the system for combating fraud is working.
The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America have condemned the Post’s series of stories as misleading and insulting to veterans who have sacrificed for their country.
Others worry the Post’s stories will be used as a pretext to reduce benefits for former members of the US military. Project 2025, which has served as an intellectual guide for Trump’s second term, proposes that the VA “target significant cost savings” by “revising disability rating awards for future claimants”.
Dr David Shulkin, who served as the VA’s undersecretary for health under President Barack Obama and secretary of veterans affairs in the first Trump administration, said the Post mischaracterized his comments about the benefits system.
Shulkin was quoted as saying “my belief is that this is a flawed system. Many of these conditions are hard to measure.” He told the Guardian he said those words, but that they were used to “mean the opposite” of what he intended – which was that the system is flawed because it prevents or delays many veterans from getting their rightful benefits that they have earned.
“Veterans are forced to navigate a benefits system that places the burden on them to gather extensive documentation,” Shulkin wrote in a social media post describing the Post’s first story. “The sheer complexity of the process leads to unnecessary delays and denials – not because of veterans’ shortcomings, but because of how the system is designed. Blaming veterans reflects a misunderstanding of how the system actually works.”
In response to questions from the Guardian, the Post defended the accuracy of its reporting. “We stand by this year-long, data-driven investigative series conducted by Washington Post reporters known for their thoroughness and factual, accountability journalism,” the statement said. “Its findings are based on public records and more than 100 on-the-record interviews, including from veterans and current and former VA officials.”
The newspaper said it represented Shulkin’s comments fairly, saying: “Former VA Secretary Shulkin confirmed the accuracy of his quotations with a Post reporter before and after publication.”
The Post said “reporting on fraud is essential to safeguarding benefits programs funded by taxpayers and ensuring resources reach the veterans who need them most”.
Politicians from both parties have attacked the series. At a hearing last week of the Senate committee on veterans affairs, Republican Tim Sheehy of Montana, a combat veteran and former Navy Seal, called it “poisonous and disgusting”. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois who lost her legs in Iraq, called it an effort to “falsely depict our nation’s veterans as a group of dishonest fraudsters and cheaters”.
“Nobody is denying the unfortunate reality that a small number of veterans exist who will dishonor their service and their fellow veterans by defrauding the VA,” Duckworth said, saying she supports robust enforcement. “The mistake we must avoid is allowing a minority of criminals to dictate the redesign of the disability benefits system into a bureaucratic black box that is more frustrating and less fair and will leave more veterans waiting and dying waiting to get their benefits they earned.”
The committee chairman, Republican Jerry Moran of Kansas, acknowledged “concerns and frustrations” about the articles, but added that the Post series “provides us an opportunity to have an important discussion about whether the system we have built is serving the needs of veterans today, and how we can reform it to better serve those it was designed to help”.
The VA has condemned the Post’s reporting as “garbage”, but declined to provide specifics.
Here are some of the key points that the Post’s story highlights – and what experts, veterans and the public record say:
The Post reported “taxpayers will spend roughly $193bn this year for the VA to compensate about 6.9 million disabled veterans on the presumption that their ability to work is impaired”. It notes this is a sixfold increase since 2001, adjusted for inflation.
Experts say that this increase represents a predictable outcome of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest in American history.
More than 4 million Americans have served in the global “war on terror”, with 77% deployed to a war theater and 58% serving in a combat zone. The absence of a draft meant a higher share of veterans of these wars served multiple deployments than previous wars, leading to higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and physical injuries from bomb blasts.
Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, who co-authored the 2008 book The Three Trillion Dollar War, noted that the heavy use of military contractors to fill support rolls such as cooks and mechanics also meant that a greater proportion of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were exposed to violence.
Bilmes estimated that the cost of disability benefits for the Iraq and Afghanistan generation would reach between $1.3tn and $1.5tn by 2050.
“I see no evidence of fraud greater than in any other government program,” she said. Instead, Bilmes said, the sticker shock came from a lack of planning. When Congress authorizes a war and the Pentagon fights it, no one plans for the long-term cost, which grows as veterans age, injuries sustained in service become more debilitating and diseases from toxic exposure develop.
The cost of veterans’ benefits from the first world war and the second world war crested about 50 years after the end of those conflicts, she said, while benefits costs to Vietnam veterans were hitting their apex now.
The Post told the Guardian: “It is important to note that injuries or illnesses from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only driver of the increase in claims since 2001” and that “the VA does not track how many disabilities were incurred from combat or war compared to regular or peacetime military service.”
The VA does track disabilities by the era in which the veteran served. According to the agency’s most recent benefits report, 1.6 million “compensation recipients” served in the global “war on terror”. The most prevalent disabilities among these veterans are tinnitus, knee injuries and PTSD.
Experts say the VA’s primary interest in tracking claims was not whether the disability was caused by combat, but whether it was connected to military service – for example, not whether the cause of a back injury was a bomb blast or a training accident.
The Post reported that the number of disabilities claimed by veterans is growing – noting that last year “each disabled veteran received, on average, benefits for a combination of about seven injuries and illnesses, up from 2.5 per person in 2001”.
Experts say this is not an indication of dubious claims but rather the nature of injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For example, the Pentagon reported that 518,000 military members experienced at least one brain injury between 2000 and 2025. A body of scientific research has found that “even mild cases can involve serious long-term effects on areas such as thinking ability, memory, mood and focus” as well as “headaches, vision and hearing problems”.
In the VA disability claims process, each of these symptoms – tinnitus, migraines and mental health conditions – are evaluated separately, as are, for example, back injuries sustained from a Humvee rollover or other event that caused a concussion.
VA researchers have also found “chronic multisymptom illness” to be common among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, likely from toxic exposure. The ailment presents a combination of chronic symptoms “such as fatigue, joint pain, indigestion, insomnia, dizziness, breathing problems and memory problems”. Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf war, who number 700,000, face similar problems.
A Post headline said the “VA’s disability program is an ‘honor system.’”
The Post cited a 2021 court filing by federal prosecutors who brought charges against an Army veteran who defrauded the VA of more than $200,000. “One inherent problem [VA] must contend with, is that it operates on an honor system with its veterans,” the prosecutors wrote. “The result is that some veterans can, and unfortunately some veterans do take advantage.”
Veterans and legal experts say calling the disability benefits program an “honor system” misrepresents the process. To get a disability claim approved, a veteran must have a current condition, an event in service and a medical opinion linking the current condition to the event in service. All of this must be documented as part of the claim.
If the veteran’s claim advances past a paper review, an independent physician – either a VA doctor or a federal contractor – must evaluate the veteran’s condition, confirm its connection to military service and establish the severity of its impact on their ability to work using a rating schedule published in the federal code.
This process often takes years to complete and results in many wrongful denials, VA data shows.
The Post’s reporting “is grossly misleading and one-sided and misrepresents the facts”, said Rose Carmen Goldberg, director of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School. “For many veterans, seeking benefits represents a second battle, a painful and retraumatizing experience where they are forced to open up old wounds to share with strangers and the most difficult experiences of their lives.”
When Joseph Castellanos returned home from Afghanistan, he ended up homeless, sleeping on the streets and beaches of his hometown, Long Beach, California.
A VA doctor diagnosed him with PTSD, which the former senior airman said was tied to his experience being mortared while stationed at Bagram air force base in Afghanistan. Castellanos, who is gay and joined the military when it was illegal for LGBTQ+ individuals to serve openly, also said he was raped twice during his four years in the service.
Like many veterans who say they experienced sexual assault in uniform (the VA estimates 41% of women and 4% of men in the service experience military sexual trauma), Castellanos did not file a report, so there was no paper trail.
In 2014, a VA compensation examiner conceded that Castellanos had most likely been “raped at some point in his life” but concluded that he had not been sexually assaulted while in the military. The examiner also rejected Castellanos’s statements that he was traumatized by mortar fire in Afghanistan, noting he continued to be a top performer throughout his deployment.
It would take Castellanos four years to get his disability claim approved. During most of that time, he was homeless. The disability payments he finally received have stabilized Castellanos’s life. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in cultural studies and a law degree, which he plans to use to help other veterans with disability benefit appeals.
In its statement to the Guardian, the Post said it “reported in great detail how the disability claims process works and how, under the law, medical conditions must be documented as ‘service-connected’ to qualify for compensation”.
The newspaper also said that “while some ailments can be verified with X-rays or blood samples, many of the most common claims filed with VA – including depression, back pain, erectile dysfunction and migraine headaches – are difficult to confirm with objective medical tests”.
The Post reported that it examined “how some veterans have conned the government” by obtaining records from 30 disability fraud cases that have led to criminal convictions since 2017. The Post said it uncovered “cases of brazen fraud totaling tens of millions of dollars”.
Many of those cases led to lengthy prison sentences. Barry Hoover, for example, a Navy veteran who faked blindness, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution.
No examples of veterans who perpetrated fraud but went unpunished were revealed by the Post.
The VA disability compensation system provided nearly 7 million veterans an estimated $193bn in benefits in 2024. The tens of millions of dollars in fraud cited by the Post represents less than one-one-hundredth of a percent (0.005%) of that total.
In its statement, the Post said it “repeatedly reported in its articles that VA officials, veterans groups and independent analysts say most disability claims are legitimate. At the same time, current and former VA officials say fraud investigations are relatively rare because of a lack of resources and because VA does not place a high priority on policing fraud.”
It said that while the amount of fraud within the system “is inherently unquantifiable, no one seriously doubts that it far exceeds the amount from the tiny fraction of cases that have resulted in prosecution”.
The Post reported that “the number of veterans receiving benefits for disabilities such as tinnitus and post-traumatic stress disorder has grown exponentially since 2001”.
More than 1 million veterans of the global “war on terror” have received disability ratings for tinnitus, according to the most recent annual VA benefits report. And more than 700,000 have received disability ratings for PTSD, according to the VA. These numbers are in line with scientific estimates of their prevalence among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
Tinnitus, a persistent ringing in the ears, is associated with concussions and exposure to loud noises, including bomb blasts and the persistent hum of diesel engines. One study found 34% of service members and 44% of veterans experience “constant tinnitus”.
Of the 5.8 million veterans treated by VA clinicians in fiscal year 2024, about 14 out of every 100 men and 24 out of every 100 women were diagnosed with PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD. The center estimates that 15% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experienced PTSD last year, with nearly 30% experiencing it during their lifetime.
The Post reported that “556,000 veterans receive disability benefits for eczema”.
Eczema, a chronic skin condition characterized by itchy, inflamed and scaly skin, is highly associated with deployments to desert environments and toxic exposure during the Gulf war and the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
The vast majority of veterans with service-connected skin conditions receive no financial compensation for that disability. According to the VA’s annual benefits report, 77% of disability ratings for skin conditions are determined to be “zero percent” – meaning that veterans are allowed to receive free healthcare for the injury or disease but not money.
“A zero percent service connection means VA will treat that condition,” said Iraq war veteran Ryan Gallucci, assistant adjutant general of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). “That’s why people file. A majority of veterans want the disabilities to go away if they can be treated.”
The VA healthcare system rations care through the use of eight priority groups. Except for the most disabled or indigent veterans, care is typically only provided for conditions connected to military service.
For payment to be provided for eczema, claims examiners must find lesions covering at least 5% of the body or that require regular treatment.
For veterans to receive the maximum rating for eczema – which entitles them to approximately $1,500 a month – the lesions must cover at least 40% of the veterans’ body or require “near-constant systemic care”. According to the VA’s annual benefits report, only 1% of veterans with a service-connected skin condition receive this amount of money for it.
“We’re not talking about a little rash that you put some over-the-counter cream on,” said Kayla Williams, an Iraq war veteran and former director of the VA’s Center for Women Veterans. “If you’re getting compensation, you have a serious skin condition.”
Williams told the Guardian she was service-connected for eczema but received no compensation for the condition. She said she wanted it in her record in case the condition got worse later so she would not have to prove it was linked to her military service. By that time, the records she would need to rely on might have disappeared.
The Post reported veterans have received disability compensation for “toenail fungus”.
Very few veterans actually receive compensation for this malady. Money is only provided if an examiner finds the fungus covers more than 5% of the veterans’ entire body or 20% of their foot, according to the federal regulations.
“Foot health is a serious issue in the military,” said the VFW’s Gallucci, who said he went two months without a shower in Iraq. Amid the pressure of war, fungal growth can go unattended and become a chronic condition, he said. “We’re not talking about simple athlete’s foot here. If you can’t get rid of it, then it becomes a service-connected condition.”
The Post did not report how many people had received compensation for toe-nail fungus in its stories. In response to questions from the Guardian, the paper said 179,000 veterans had a service-connection for dermatophytosis (or fungal infections) in fiscal year 2023.
According to the VA ratings schedule, that figure includes permanent fungal infections covering any part of the body including feet, face, beard, back, groin and thighs. The Post did not indicate how many veterans receive monetary compensation for this malady. The Guardian queried the VA, which declined to provide data on compensation citing the government shutdown.
The Post said: “We consider it newsworthy that VA grants disability benefits for toenail fungus and other minor afflictions.”
The Post reported that the “VA generally considers combat veterans who had their legs amputated below the knee to be 40% disabled. At that rate, they receive $774 per month, more with dependents.”
This is technically correct; however, veterans and legal experts say it would be uncommon to find an amputee who was rated less than 100% disabled. The veteran who lost their leg in the war would most certainly also have suffered nerve damage and musculoskeletal injuries in other parts of their body.
In response to questions from the Guardian, the Post said this did not contradict their reporting, stating that “as the Post has reported, most veterans who receive disability benefits are being compensated for multiple conditions”.
The Post reported sleep apnea “is now one of VA’s most frequently claimed disabilities. Last year, 659,335 vets received compensation for it. That’s about 11 times the number who did in 2009, VA figures show.”
Veteran advocates and former VA officials acknowledge that this was an issue and that the rating schedule for sleep apnea – developed decades ago – was prone to abuse.
In 2022, the Biden administration proposed new standards that reduced the amount of potential compensation for the condition, providing payments only to veterans who could prove their ability to work was affected. The proposed rules also asked examiners to query veterans about whether they had first tried less intensive therapies, such as weight loss, before trying a sleep mask.
A VA spokesperson said the agency “is on a pace” to complete modernization of the entire disability ratings schedule “during the second Trump administration”.
An official with the federal general accountability office told Congress last week that the federal code remains antiquated in four areas – respiratory conditions, ear and auditory conditions, neurology and mental health – but has been updated for other parts of the body.
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