North Shore Veterans Agents Push To Get Word Out On PACT Act Benefits

PEABODY, MA — It was a battle that Peabody Veterans Agent Steve Patten tried to fight for years, and one it looked like he might not win.

Then came the federal Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act (PACT Act) that turned the tide of history on the right side for many veterans, or their surviving spouses, who were previously denied benefits and who are now eligible.

In this case, the Peabody resident's husband served in the Gulf War and died of colon cancer. She applied for federal survivor benefits in 2019 but until the PACT Act passed Congress and President Joe Biden signed it in 2022, service in the midst of burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq was not considered a presumptive cause of that form of cancer.

"When the new legislation came out we resubmitted it and because we were like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa,' that is now a presumptive condition for those who served in the Gulf War," Patten told Patch. "She had been waiting for four years to see a dollar and now they can back pay her all the way to April 1, 2019, when she first applied. That's $100,000.

"Even if you take away the big payback number she now looking at $1,945 a month because there are kids still in the house. When they move out, it's still $1,562 tax-free for the rest of her life. When I see $1,562 it makes me emotional because that's a mortgage. That's keeping a roof over people's heads."

Patten said that case is one of three in Peabody where the benefit eligibility changes in the PACT Act have become "game-changing" for city residents.

In one other case, an elderly survivor became eligible for benefits because her late husband served as a mechanic in Thailand during the Vietnam War and was exposed to Agent Orange. The Royal Thai Air Base was one of more than a dozen areas in Southeast Asia that the PACT Act opened up for benefits for those who served overseas but we not necessarily boots on the ground in Vietnam.

Another case involved someone who served in Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq and now has prostate cancer. That person was granted eligible for tax-free benefits, plus secondary benefits such as mental health services, for the rest of their life.

"The money that is available to veterans is life-changing," Patten said. "Not in every case, but in some cases it is. But if people don't have access to the information about it they don't have access to the money. These are people who have given their blood, sweat and tears for this country. They deserve these benefits."

The biggest issue that Patten and other North Shore veterans agents have is that there is no national database that generates names of those likely eligible for PACT Act benefits now that the rules have changed, and are reliant on the veterans themselves, their spouses or perhaps their children to come forward and try to claim them.

Once contacted, Patten said he and his fellow Veterans Agents are happy to assist in any way they can, but they need people to reach out to them and tell them who they are first.

"The PACT Act has opened up a lot of things where people who have been denied before are now eligible," Beverly Veterans Agent David Perinchief told Patch. "The VA is trying to reach out to them but the VA has to go through 50 years of records to find these people.

"I can go back and look at veterans who voted in the city but from there, I don't have any way to say, 'Hey you are eligible for this.'"

Patten said he speaks to veterans living in Brooksby Village twice a year and reaches out to the Peabody Veterans Council as much as he can, but is also looking to the media to help get the word out so that people who might be eligible will come to him so he can help.

"A lot of the VSOs on the North Shore put things on our websites and but that doesn't pull people to the website," Patten said. "So how do you do outreach on a shoestring budget? Honestly, the media can change lives."

He cited the example of how a 25-year-old Afghanistan veteran recently diagnosed with a cancer that is now eligible for coverage, with favorable treatments, could receive $1,700 a month every month for the next 60 years of his or her life.

"That's $2 million," he said. "We have a conversation on a Wednesday morning and you find out you could be eligible for that $2 million. The biggest obstacle is getting that information out to the people."

Perenchief said that any veteran, or spouse of a veteran who did not remarry, could be eligible for the benefits and urged those who think they may be to reach out to their city or town's veterans services office to determine the next steps.

"The VSO will tell you exactly what you need to get this started and we will get it done," he said. "We are already employed by the cities and towns so you are not paying for this service.

"There is so much out there. This is a service that's being provided for veterans and we all want them to take advantage of it."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)