Victim Compensation Fund

In most cases, the families of individuals who are incapacitated or deceased as a result of a VCF-eligible condition are able to file a claim on the victim’s behalf. Regardless of their family relationship to the victim, however, people filing a claim on behalf of a deceased victim must prove that they have the legal […]

Registering for the VCF does not require you to waive any rights, and we encourage anybody who was below Canal Street on or after 9/11 to do that now, whether or not they are sick. It’s quick and easy to do. Just go to www.VCF.gov and click on the menu item that says “Register.” From […]

New York City is incredibly diverse, so it’s no surprise that many people who contributed to the WTC rescue and clean-up efforts, as well as many members of the lower Manhattan community, were originally from somewhere else. Among the thousands of people who were exposed to the air downtown during the WTC clean-up are many […]

For years we’ve heard that the Victim Compensation Fund will eventually run out of money. Many people with minor illnesses chose not to file claims because they didn’t want to take money from those who were sicker or “deserved it more.” Now that the VCF has been fully funded and permanently extended, that is no […]

The VCF has a few restrictions around “timely filing,” which is the amount of time that they allow to pass between a claimant learning of a diagnosis and filing with the fund. Recently, because so many people were not aware they qualified for the fund, the VCF updated their policy on timeliness to make it […]

The Victim Compensation Fund accepts a few different kinds of proof of presence, but for most claimants, the best evidence is two affidavits. These affidavits should come from people, preferably non-family members, who personally witnessed you in the NYC Exposure Zone between September 11, 2001 and May 30, 2002. To be accepted as proof, affidavits […]