Effective Dates of Benefits for Disability or Death  Caused By Herbicide   The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is adding a new provision to disability compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) regulations. The new rule will allow certain disability claims associated with herbicide exposure to be awarded even if the same claims had been previously denied. Benefits awarded will be retroactive to the date of the claim or the date of the previously denied claim. The new rule also provides that VA may pay to certain survivors of a deceased beneficiary, or to the beneficiary's estate, any amounts the beneficiary was entitled to receive under the effective-date provisions of this rule, but which were not paid prior to the beneficiary's death. The purpose of this rule is to reflect the requirements of court orders in a class-action case. View this pdf file to learn more about this benefit. To get more information on Veterans disability issues, visit the Veterans' Disability page.