Press Release
Posted:
St. Helena – Today, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs has extended the deadline through Monday, August 14, for veterans, their families, and survivors to apply for PACT Act benefits backdated to August 10, 2022.
Veterans and survivors who apply (or submit their intent to file) for PACT Act benefits by 11:59PM Eastern/8:59PM Pacific on Monday, August 14, 2023 will be eligible to have their benefits backdated to August 10, 2022 – the day that President Biden signed the PACT Act into law. This is an extension from the original deadline of August 9, 2023. All veterans and their survivors should apply – or submit their intent to file – for PACT Act benefits now by visiting VA.gov/PACT.
“The extension of backdated PACT Act benefits is a welcome development as veterans, their families, and survivors experienced technical difficulties when trying to submit the intent to file,” said Thompson. “The new deadline of August 14 will provide those seeking PACT Act benefits with additional time to submit their intent to file and be eligible for backdated benefits. I encourage all veterans, their families, and survivors to take advantage of this extended deadline and begin the process of applying as soon as possible.”
VA made this decision out of an abundance of caution after experiencing technical difficulties with VA.gov/PACT in recent days. Specifically, due to extremely high demand, some Veterans who have sought to submit their intent to file for PACT Act benefits have received error messages while doing so. Despite these messages, VA has successfully logged every one of these intents to file – meaning that every Veteran or survivor who has received an error message while applying for PACT Act benefits can consider their intent to file complete. VA is working to contact these individuals to confirm directly to them that their intent to file will be honored and their effective date protected.
Most importantly, no Veteran or survivor will miss out on a single day of benefits due to this issue.