More so, the agency is urging more veterans to submit claims quickly. Joshua Jacobs, the VA’s senior adviser for policy and acting Veterans Benefits Administration undersecretary, said veterans should submit their claims before August so their benefits begin from the day the PACT Act became law and they will receive back pay.
"We will really need your help communicating because we want every veteran, every single veteran to get the care they need and the benefits they deserve, the benefits they have earned, and we will not rest until they do," McDonough said.
Of the claims reviewed, the Inspector General found that 21,000 claims were processed incorrectly. One of the two main errors was that the Veterans Benefits Administration prematurely denied 17,200 claims. Required letters requesting veterans to provide evidence of their documented exposure were never sent, the report said.
Included in the PACT Act is the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, which will allow veterans, families and other individuals who worked or lived for at least 30 days on the base from Aug. 1, 1953, to Dec. 31, 1987, to sue for harm and exposure to contaminated water.
Daniels now believes that the deaths of her only children were not just acts of God. Instead, they may have a government cause — the toxic chemicals that for decades contaminated the Camp Lejeune military base’s water supply that she drank during her pregnancies.