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Washington, D.C , DC — Extension will ensure that no Veteran or survivor will miss out on a single day of backdated PACT Act benefits Today, VA announced that Veterans and survivors who
apply (or submit their intent to file) for PACT Act benefits by 11:59PM ET 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. We encourage all Veterans and their survivors to apply – or submit their
intent to file – for PACT Act benefits now by visiting VA.gov/PACT. VA has 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. We are 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. VA has also resolved nearly all of the technical issues with
VA.gov/PACT. As of 5:00pm, less than one tenth of one percent of attempts to submit an “intent to file” today (August 9) had resulted in an error message. This percentage is down from about
18% on August 8. Additionally, we have had a high volume of calls to VA call centers throughout this week, and we are working to decrease abnormally long call center wait times. We continue
to work on these issues and will not rest until they are fully resolved. Throughout the past day, VA has sent out communications from all channels to reassure Veterans and survivors that
they would not miss out on their earned benefits due to this issue. We put an emergency banner on the VA website to tell Veterans and survivors that their intents to file will be honored. We
changed the intent to file error message to confirm that, despite the error message, the intent to file has been saved. Finally, we communicated with Veterans directly on social media, via
email, and through coordination with Congressional leaders and Veterans Service Organizations. All of this messaging will be updated tonight (details below) to reflect the extended deadline
for Veterans and survivors to apply for benefits backdated to August 10, 2022. We at VA will continue to encourage Veterans and their survivors to immediately file their PACT Act claims — or
submit their intents to file — at VA.gov/PACT. With the extended deadline, Veterans and survivors who do so by 11:59PM ET on Monday, August 14, 2023 may receive benefits backdated to August
10, 2022. Please also see the news release that came out today: One year of the PACT Act: A historic expansion of benefits and health care for Veterans and their survivors LEGAL BACKGROUND
FOR THIS EXTENSION: Under the authority in 38 C.F.R. 3.1(r), the Under Secretary for Benefits may extend a deadline such as this “when he or she determines that a natural or man-made
interference with the normal channels through which the Veterans Benefits Administration ordinarily receives correspondence has resulted in one or more Veterans Benefits Administration
offices experiencing extended delays in receipt of claims, information, or evidence from claimants served by the affected office or offices to an extent that, if not addressed, would
adversely affect such claimants through no fault of their own.” In the coming days, VA will submit a federal register notice to codify this extension.