Three months you don’t pay

Published September 23, 2026. The benefits-news items below were current as of that date. This is an archived issue of our weekly email — subscribe here to get new issues first.

A three-month VGLI premium holiday, applied automatically

VA announced on September 16 the first-ever premium holiday for Veterans’ Group Life Insurance. Enrollees will pay no VGLI premiums for three months — November 2026 through January 2027. (Source: VA Office of Media Relations news release, September 16, 2026.)

The numbers VA published: more than 457,000 veterans carry VGLI, the average premium runs about $110 a month, and the average enrollee saves roughly $330 across the holiday. The program is self-funded, and VA credits its financial performance for making the break possible.

Three things worth knowing. First, it is automatic — eligible policyholders are exempted without applying, and VA says notification letters or emails go out in the coming weeks. Second, eligibility means a current policy that has not lapsed or been cancelled for non-payment. Third, if you paid in advance through that window, you can take a three-month credit on the policy or request a refund.

VA closes the fiscal year with record claims volume

VA reported on September 22 that it processed more than three million disability claims in fiscal year 2026 as of September 18 — past last year’s record with a week still on the clock — and has awarded more than $207 billion in compensation and pension benefits this fiscal year. Average time to a decision was 75.6 days in September 2026, against 141.5 days in January 2025. Accuracy is running 94 percent, and VBA says it grants more than 60 percent of claims filed. (Source: VA Office of Media Relations news release, September 22, 2026.)

For anyone building a CRSC packet, this cuts one way and not the other. Faster VA decisions mean the rating picture a packet rests on comes together sooner. But the speed is entirely on VA’s side of the wall. Your branch CRSC board is a separate queue with its own timeline, and nothing in this announcement shortens it.

Treating a CRSC award as finished after VA changes your ratings

A CRSC approval is calculated against the conditions and percentages your branch board had in front of it on the day it decided. That is the trap. VA grants a new condition or raises a percentage two years later — and the CRSC award does not move.

There is no feed from VA to your branch CRSC board. Nobody at DFAS reconciles the two. If you do not send the new VA decision letter in and ask for reconsideration, the older, smaller figure keeps paying, month after month, and it looks entirely normal on the statement.

With VA deciding claims in roughly two and a half months right now, ratings are changing faster than they used to. That makes this gap easier to open than it was two years ago — and easier to miss.