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hello and welcome to cck live under five my name is Nicholas Springs and in this video I'm going
to be explaining what happens when a veteran has a pending claim for a newly presumptive condition
so when we're talking about presumptive service connection what we mean is a
presumption of service connection when vendor when VA presumes a veteran's
disease was caused by their military service usually due to some type of toxic exposure
so the presumption of service connection takes place takes the place of the medical
Nexus requirement in obtaining surface connection so for example a veteran Who develops prostate
cancer and was exposed to Asian orange during their service in the Republic of Vietnam VA
is going to automatically assume that service connection is granted because there's existing
medical evidence documenting the relationship between prostate cancer and Agent Orange
the reason this is important is because VA recently created many new presumptions Under
The Pact act for qualifying toxic exposed veterans they specifically added over 20 burn pit and toxic
exposure related conditions to a new presumptive list for veterans who served in Southwest Asia
and agent orange presumptive conditions were newly added as well as well as additional locations for
Asian orange exposure and different dates for specific locations that had been recognized
previously so the question before us today is what to do if your claim is already pending
and the reason that's important is because the pact Act was only passed as of August
2022 specifically with Simon's law on August 10 2022 so for veterans who are filing new claims
under the pack deck that's the earliest possible effective date they'll have but for anyone who
already has a pending claim or appeal with VA it's important to continue pursuing that claim
or appeal because one VA is going to automatically apply the new presumptions to their run and claim
meaning there's no reason to withdraw and file a new claim and by continuing with their current
claim veterans preserve their original effective data now it's important to keep in mind that these
new presumptions will only apply as far back as August 10th 2022 and Veterans will still need
to prove direct service connection under the old rules prior to the new presumptions in order to
get the earliest possible effective date but that can only happen if the claim has been pending for
a long time and the veteran continues to pursue that claim through either a higher level of review
request an nod or potentially a supplemental claim filed within a year of a prior decision
um you don't want to file a new claim because that involves moving to the back of the line and as we
all know va's processing system can often be quite delayed so if you have a pending claim you're
already in line VA will get to you as they process their claims and work through things this year
finally it's important to note that these new presumptions and changes created by The Pact
Act only affect service connection not the rating assigned so packed acts will have no
effect whatsoever on any conditions that have already been granted service connection so if
you have an increased rating claim pending or something like that you can pursue that claim
but you should do so knowing that it's going to be completely unaffected by the fact that
so that's all we have for you today if you're in for if you're interested in
more information on The Pact itself you can find it on our blog and in our other
related videos thank you for tuning in and don't forget to like And subscribe [Music]