As a veteran with a severe disability, you may be entitled to additional monthly payments
at a rate much higher than the 100% allowable under the Disability Compensation Ratings.
I'm Krystal Lechner, and I'm an attorney with Woods and Woods, LLP.
Today we'll be talking about Special Monthly Compensation, these additional monthly payments,
and what's commonly referred to as SMC.
SMC is a benefit set by Federal statute, and it's paid in addition to the rate that you
receive under the Disability Compensation Ratings.
It results in a higher payment for the veteran with a severe disability or who falls into
certain categories that we'll talk about.
The Disability Rating Schedule is intended to pay veterans for reduced earning capacity,
whereas SMC, on the other hand, is meant to compensate veterans for special conditions
that are non-economic in nature, so personal inconveniences, needing aid and support from
others, or other types of permanent assistance that they may need.
The Federal Government recognizes that some injuries are so severe that you may need assistance
with everyday tasks or permanent accommodations for the rest of your life.
This additional money is intended to pay the veteran for the disability as well as the
accommodations that they need to take care of their everyday needs.
There are several broad categories of SMC, and there's a lot of definitions thrown in
there.
We'll talk about three of these.
The first one is the specific severe disabilities that fall into definitions under the Federal
Code, and these are commonly broken into categories of loss, meaning amputation, or loss of use,
which is basically the same thing as amputation, only you still have that limb or that extremity,
so loss of hands, feet, arm or other extremities.
Other examples include loss of eyesight or bilateral deafness.
The second category is aid and attendance, and this is pretty much what it sounds like.
It's for a veteran who has a severe disability that requires regular supervision or assistance
from someone.
This isn't necessarily constant, but regular, for a service-connected disability.
Some of the factors that the VA considers everyday tasks that would qualify a veteran
for aid and attendance would be the inability to dress themselves, take care of basic hygiene,
to feed themselves, and this would require the assistance of someone else, but not necessarily
a medical professional, so this could be a family member, someone that lives with you,
or a home nurse.
The third category is housebound status.
This is another example of SMC that entitles a veteran to additional compensation when
they are substantially confined to their home because of their service-connected disability
and it is reasonably certain that this disability will continue throughout the rest of their
life.
Each of these types of SMCs have different levels that qualify veterans for different
amounts of payment monthly.
These ratings are in addition to the numerical ratings that are established under the standard
disability ratings schedule, and they're identified and you'll hear this commonly such as SMCK,
SMCL, SMCM.
These alphabetical ratings are simply just the designations that are in the Code of Federal
Regulations that outlines the eligibility.
The important thing to remember are that these SMCs rates, these alphabetical designations,
are higher than the 100% rate that are allowed under the disability schedule.
The amount received also depends on whether or not the veteran is married and how many
children that the veteran has.
Because of this complicated rating schedule, it can be difficult to determine whether or
not you qualify for SMC, and if you do qualify, how much you're entitled to.
If you think you may qualify for SMC or you have questions about SMC, feel free to look
at our website or give us a call.