VA extends PACT Act filing deadline after website glitches

Veterans and survivors who are seeking benefits for exposure to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances during their military service have an extra week to declare their intention to make claims in the wake of website glitches.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is giving veterans until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 14 to file their intention to seek benefits under the PACT Act. Approved claimants are potentially eligible to have benefits backdated to Aug. 10, 2022.

According to VA, most of the website problems have been resolved, with the percentage of users receiving error messages dropping from 18% on Tuesday to 0.1% on Thursday. The VA also said it was working to decrease wait times at call centers where veterans are facing "abnormally long" waits.

The extension was offered by VA out of an "abundance of caution," and the agency had already alerted applicants that it had logged the intent to file declarations of every veteran and survivor who had received an error message from the VA.gov/PACT website.


https://www.govexec.com/defense/2023/08/va-extends-pact-act-filing-deadline-after-website-glitches/389310/