More than 2000 Boy Scouts child sexual abuse victims died waiting for payment

BSA settlement pays pennies on the dollar as survivors wait and perish without justice

More than two years after the historic $2.46 billion bankruptcy plan took effect, tens of thousands of sexual abuse survivors are receiving only a fraction of what they were promised — with many elderly claimants dying before they see meaningful compensation.

When the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy in 2020 to address decades of child sexual abuse, the $2.46 billion settlement plan was hailed as the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history. For roughly 82,000 survivors who came forward seeking accountability, it offered a path to justice.

But for most, that promise has yet to be fulfilled.

The Scouting Settlement Trust, established in 2023 to distribute funds, has paid initial distributions of just 1.5% of allowed claim values.

A survivor whose claim was validated at $1 million should expect to receive approximately $50,000 to $70,000 total, distributed in small increments over the coming years.

Many survivors were told they were entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars but have received less than 2% of what they are owed.

The trust has already processed claims that, if paid in full, would total more than $7 billion — nearly three times what is available in the settlement fund.

More recent figures show insurers have received bills for at least $12 billion from the trust.

Why So Little?

Insurance Litigation Drags On: The trust’s ability to pay survivors in full depends on extracting billions of dollars from dozens of nonsettling insurance companies through prolonged legal battles.

While approximately $1.65 billion in funds from settling insurers was released from escrow in January 2026 after the Supreme Court declined to review the bankruptcy plan, the full pool remains uncertain.

Massive Claim Volume: More than 82,000 survivors came forward. The gap between total claim values and available funding is staggering:

Total claim values are estimated at between $8.5 billion and $38.8 billion, while the settlement fund sits at roughly $2.46 billion.

State Law Disparities: Conflicting state statutes of limitations mean a survivor raped in one state might receive an amount 20 times less than someone who suffered the exact same abuse in another state.

Processing Backlog: As of September 2025, the trust had determined allowed claim amounts for approximately 70% of submitted claims, but only 25,768 of more than 58,000 claimants had received initial distributions.

Insurance companies that have been delaying or disputing payments to the Boy Scouts of America Settlement Trust include Allianz Global Risks US Insurance Co., Liberty Mutual, Old Republic, certain units of AIG, and National Surety Corp.

Law firms that participated in the case are expected to take roughly 40% of all payments to survivors from the $2.4 billion settlement trust.

A Race Against Time

The delays carry a devastating human cost. Approximately 36% of claimants are 65 or older, and nearly 4% — more than 2,300 people — are 80 or older.

More than 2,000 claimants have died while waiting for their claims to be resolved; of those, more than 1,900 never received an initial distribution.

Bob, a retired Florida man in his 70s who was abused as a preteen Scout more than 60 years ago, was told he qualified for a $668,000 payout.

He called it “life-changing money.” But he added, “Here’s the heartache: I’ll never see it.”

“It’s been a total nightmare,” said Mickey, an 82-year-old from Baltimore who said he was molested in his early teens by a scoutmaster. “You’re reliving everything, but it’s not coming to an end.”

What’s Next?

The Supreme Court’s January 2026 decision not to review the bankruptcy plan removed a major legal hurdle, allowing $1.65 billion in escrowed funds to be released.

Trust administrators have acknowledged they don’t know how much claimants will ultimately receive, saying it “almost certainly will not” be the full claim value they were told they would receive.

For the thousands of aging survivors still waiting, each passing day brings more uncertainty — and for some, time has already run out.