3M Has Paid $3.04 Billion of Its $6 Billion Earplug Settlement — 232,434 Veterans Averaged $10,336 Each. The Next $800 Million Is Due September 15, and Points Claimants Wait for an October 1 Calculation

The official Combat Arms Earplugs Settlement Program site, run by BrownGreer as Settlement Administrator, posts a “Summary of Funding and Payment” that it last updated on August 21, 2026. The headline figure is $3,037,214,828 in “Total Payments Issued in all MSAs” — all three master settlement agreements signed August 29, 2023 — with the footnote that all dollar figures “are net after Common Benefits Assessment,” i.e. after the deduction that funds common-benefit counsel. The breakdown:

MSA I, Early Payment Program (EPP): 232,434 claimants paid, 637 unpaid, 233,071 total; $2,402,547,881 paid. MSA I, Deferred Payment Program (DPP): 17,137 paid, 323 unpaid, 17,460 total; $224,476,479 — made up of $1,000 registration payments (16,998 paid, $12,658,877; 970 unpaid; 17,968 eligible) and points-based award Payment Cycle 1 (16,458 paid, $209,036,785; 119 unpaid; 16,577 eligible). MSA I, Extraordinary Injury Fund (EIF): 17,433 awardees paid, 203 unpaid, 17,636 total; $49,003,636. MSA III, Wave Cases: 1,595 claimants paid, 0 unpaid; $212,260,209. MSA III EIF: 531 paid, 0 unpaid; $13,916,848. And separately: “All 13 MSA II Verdict Cases have been paid totaling $135,009,775.”

That is the entire public accounting. There is no per-person lookup; a claimant sees their own figure only inside the BrownGreer portal.

Our arithmetic from those lines: the 232,434 EPP claimants averaged $10,336. Cycle 1 points-based awards averaged $12,701 across 16,458 claimants. The 1,595 Wave-case claimants — the cases that had been worked up for trial — averaged $133,078. MSA I EIF awards averaged about $2,811; MSA III EIF awards about $26,209; and the 13 verdict cases about $10.4 million each.

Three cautions before anyone treats those as “what I’ll get.” The EPP was designed as a fixed, lower payment for claimants who chose speed over a points review, so its average is a floor for that cohort, not a benchmark for the program. The DPP points-based figure is Cycle 1 of five: the site’s timeline lists a “Point Dollar Value Calculation” every October 1 from 2025 through 2029, so a Cycle 1 average is a first installment, and the dollar value of a point is recomputed each year against the money 3M has funded. And the averages are net of the common-benefit assessment but before any attorney contingency fee, lien or offset a claimant’s own arrangement carries.

The line that will circulate this month — “$800 million will be sent out September 15” — is a misreading of the program timeline. What the site lists, under “Settlement Program Timeline,” is “$800M Funded (September 15, 2026).” That is 3M’s scheduled contribution into the settlement fund, the next in a series: $10M (September 8, 2023), $146.9M for MSA II (September 18, 2023), $250M (December 26, 2023), $350M (April 15, 2024), $750M (July 15, 2024), $25M (October 15, 2024), $875M (January 1, 2025), “All EPP Awards Funded; $600M Funded” (April 15, 2025), $75M (January 15, 2026), $325M (April 15, 2026). By our sum those milestones put roughly $3.41 billion funded through April 15, 2026, against the $3.04 billion paid out — the gap being money in the fund awaiting the next award cycle, plus interest and administration.

After September 15 the posted schedule continues: Point Dollar Value Calculation 2 (October 1, 2026); $150M (December 1, 2026); $750M (July 15, 2027); $50M (September 15, 2027); Calculation 3 (October 1, 2027); $300M (July 15, 2028); Calculation 4 (October 1, 2028); $300M (July 15, 2029); Calculation 5 (October 1, 2029). That is why a DPP claimant is told to expect payments in cycles: each October the administrator recomputes the point value from the money available, and the next payment cycle follows. The site’s August 12, 2026 announcement is titled “Payment Cycles 2-5 and CMO 100 on Getting Awards Paid”; its full text is inside the claimant and counsel portals, and we quote only the title.

3M’s own framing, from its March 26, 2024 release, is “$6.0 billion, between 2023 to 2029,” with “a total pre-tax present value of $5.3 billion” — the 2029 tail is the design, not a delay.

The same page carries a “Status of Filed Cases” block, last updated September 25, 2025: 391,283 cases were filed in MDL 2885 (N.D. Fla.); 104,817 were dismissed before the settlement date; 36,433 were dismissed afterward “for reasons unrelated to getting paid in the program”; 250,033 were dismissed after payment or notice in the program; and 0 remain pending in the MDL. In the Minnesota coordinated proceeding, 2,861 were dismissed after payment and 11 were still pending. 3M said in March 2024 that more than 249,000 claimants had registered out of more than 293,000 claims — a participation rate above 99%.

So the litigation, as a docket, is over. The program — funding, point calculations, EIF and lien resolution — runs on the 2029 schedule above. The distinction matters for the roughly 1,900 unpaid rows in the ledger (637 EPP, 970 DPP registration, 119 Cycle 1 points, 203 MSA I EIF): the site’s November 7, 2025 announcement title references “EIF Awardees Affected by TRICARE Liens,” and its Healthcare Liens page exists for a reason. Unpaid usually means unresolved paperwork or a lien hold, not a missing award.

Use the portal. Claimants log in at combatarmssettlement.com with the email used at registration, date of birth and last four of the SSN; counsel log in via MDL Centrality. That is where Cycle 2 timing, lien status and award letters live. The program’s registration dates passed in early 2024 (MSA I initial registration January 25, 2024; MSA III final registration February 20, 2024), so this is not a settlement anyone can newly join. If a site tells you otherwise, or offers to “expedite” a 3M payment for a fee, it is not the program.