Veterans eligible for PACT Act benefits – including those and their families exposed to toxic water at Camp Lejeune between the 1950-1980 – have until Aug. 9 to notify the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of their Intent to File a claim, WITN reported.
Making deadline would qualify people for retroactive payments back from August 2022. People can file claims post-deadline but will risk losing the earliest potential start date for benefits, said VA sponsor Joshua Jacobs.
“In order for us to process your claim we need military records and we need health records if you don’t have those you can still file a claim you can file what we call an intent to file and by filing that intent to file what you do is you preserve your place in line you preserve the earliest possible effective date and then you have a year to pull together that information,” Jacobs said.
Veterans and their survivors have filed more than 625 thousand claims as of Jun. 3 for toxic exposure-related benefits under the PACT Act since President Biden signed it into law last August, according to the VA.
