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The VA has announced that veterans and survivors who apply (or submit their intent to file) for PACT Act benefits by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, will be eligible to have their benefits backdated to Aug. 10, 2022 – the day that President Biden signed the PACT Act into law. This is an extension from the original deadline of Aug. 9, 2023.
All veterans and their survivors are encouraged to apply – or submit their intent to file – for PACT Act benefits now by visiting VA.gov/PACT. The 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. The 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. The VA has also resolved nearly all of the technical issues with VA.gov/PACT. As of 5 p.m. on Aug. 9, less than one tenth of 1 percent of attempts to submit an "intent to file" had resulted in an error message. This percentage is down from about 18% on Aug. 8. Additionally, there have been a high volume of calls to VA call centers throughout this week, and the VA is working to decrease abnormally long call center wait times. The VA will continue to encourage veterans and their survivors to immediately file their PACT Act claims — or submit their intent to file — at VA.gov/PACT. With the extended deadline, veterans and survivors who do so by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, may receive benefits backdated to Aug. 10, 2022. | 
