WASHINGTON, D.C. — Veterans with health problems from toxic exposure now have more time to get additional backdated money from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
President Biden was in Utah Thursday praising the largest expansion of benefits and services for toxic-exposed veterans and survivors in over thirty years. These are vets who breathed in toxins from things like burn pits and burning oil fields while serving our country. Now the VA presumes many of the health problems they have are actually because of their service.
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“When these troops came home many of them the fittest and best-trained warriors that we ever went anywhere exposed to these burn pits, they weren’t the same,” President Biden said.
Some veterans have been experiencing technical glitches when applying for what’s known as PACT Act benefits. Late Wednesday night, the VA announced it would extend the deadline for vets to get those benefits backdated to the day the President signed the bill exactly one year ago.
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That means former service members won’t be leaving money they earned on the table. Now they have until Monday to get their information into the system. They can still file claims after that date -- they just won’t be getting the extra year of compensation.
“Oftentimes they leave the military with wounds that aren’t seen,” veteran and advocate Kaitlynne Yancy with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said. “We have to make sure that these provisions and this type of care are in place to take care of them after they’ve taken care of us.”
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The administration said so far more than 4.1 million vets have received free screenings under the PACT Act.
“While the technical difficulties are definitely stressful and can make someone concerned that their benefits aren’t being filed, as an organization that is doing everything we can to ensure that veterans hear about this service, it tells us that more and more people are filing and so we want to keep up that momentum,” Yancy said.
Click here to file your claim.
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