Black veterans who ask the Department of Veterans Affairs for physical or mental health benefits are less likely to get them than their white counterparts, according to new data compiled by the VA.
In fiscal year 2023, 84.8% of all Black veterans who applied for physical or mental health benefits were given assistance by the VA, compared to 89.4% of their white counterparts who applied. The VA data includes information dating back to fiscal year 2017, which shows that white veterans have had a higher grant rate than their Black counterparts every year. 
On Thursday, the VA launched a new Agency Equity Team to try to figure out why health and other benefits are doled out at different rates and whether the VA can level the playing field for Blacks, women and LGBTQ+ veterans. 
“At VA, it’s our mission to serve all Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors as well as they’ve served our country. This new Agency Equity Team will help us deliver on that promise,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. “The team’s first order of business will be identifying any disparities in VA health care and benefits and eliminating them.”
The new data about white versus Black veteran benefits reinforces NBC News reporting from earlier this year that Black veterans were denied disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder at higher rates than their white counterparts, according to data from 2017. The disparities were highlighted in a series of reports by NBC News Now and NBC local stations in a series called “American Vets: Benefits, Race and Inequality.“
The new data shows that from FY 2017 to FY 2023 that trend has decreased slightly, but a higher percentage of Black vets are still denied PTSD benefits than white vets. 
VA press secretary Terrence Hayes called the creation of the Agency Equity Team “a unique opportunity” to re-engage with veterans who filed claims in the past and were denied and may have lost faith in the system.”
“They may have lost trust with VA because of those denials, but now we have a unique opportunity to bring them back into our health care system or to get them to re-apply to get the benefits that they earned,” Hayes said. 
Nbcnews