[Music] thank you
welcome to cck live my name is Caitlin degnan and I'm here with my colleague Frank Padula today we
will be answering the question what happens to VA benefits after a veteran passes away
unfortunately VA benefit payments end when a veteran passes away and that means that the
surviving spouse or dependents cannot continue receiving a veterans disability benefits from the
VA after the veteran dies however some survivors may be entitled to survivor's benefits these
include dependency and indemnity compensation or DIC VA survivors pension accrued benefits burial
benefits educational assistance health care and home loan programs when a veteran passes away the
surviving dependents may qualify for several of these these benefits depending on the situation
it's also important to note that these survivor's benefits do not Comfort State surviving dependents
at the same rate as the veterans benefits did these benefits have their own exclusive rights
which may be a smaller amount than what the veteran had received during his or her life
yes so one type of benefit that we're going to cover is called dependency and indemnity
compensation or just DIC that is a monthly benefit a monthly VA benefit that's paid
to a surviving spouse a minor dependent child or sometimes a dependent parent of
a veteran who died of causes related to their military service the DIC rate is
1562.73 per month
however there are certain circumstances in which the DIC rate can be exceeded
to qualify for the DIC rate one of the following must be true about the veteran or service member
first the service member died while on active duty active duty training or inactive Duty training
second the veteran passed away due to a service-connected condition or third the Veteran's
death was not necessarily service related but they were entitled to receive VA disability
compensation for a 100 disabling condition or the total disability rating based on individual
unemployability for a period of at least 10 years prior to death or for five years continuously from
data discharge to date of death or for at least one year before death if the veteran was a former
prisoner of war who died after September 30th of 1999. to learn more about that DIC criteria
in depth please feel free to visit our cck DIC blog posts that's Linked In the description below
we're also going to briefly touch upon another benefit called VA survivor's pension
VA survivors pension is a monthly benefit paid to surviving spouses and unmarried dependent
children of wartime veterans and to qualify for VA survivors pension the surviving dependents
must meet an income limit set by Congress that means the survivor's yearly family income and
assets must be less than a predetermined amount the benefit paid to the Survivor
is the difference between their accountable income and assets and the annual pension limit
survivors might also be entitled to a crude benefits um and these are awarded when a veteran's
claim is still pending at the time of their passing that surviving spouse may be substituted
into the veterans shoes of that claim and continue on the pending claim so as a result of that claim
its service connection or an increased rating is later awarded the surviving spouse will receive
VA accrued benefits which is the retroactive pay that the veteran would have received if he or she
was still alive up until the date of the Veteran's death so whatever the effective date of whatever
the grant is they would receive the benefits from that date up until the date of the veteran steps
some other VA survivors benefits programs to be aware of to be aware of include educational
assistance the survivors and dependent educational assistance program is part of
the GI Bill aims to offer Education and Training to eligible survivors independence of veterans
Additionally the civilian health and medical program of the Department of Veterans Affairs
also known as champ VA is a health benefits program in which VA shares the cost of certain
health care services and supplies with eligible surviving dependents VA also offers a veterans
burial allowance to help cover the cost of burial funeral and transportation upon a veteran's death
right and how to apply for these survivors benefits you know to apply for these benefits
whether it's the DIC survivors pension or accrued benefits or anything else
that surviving dependent should download fill out and submit the appropriate VA forms once the
form is complete it can be submitted online via mail or even in person at the VA Regional Office
and finally it's important to note that these benefits VA survivors benefits are not taxable
so VA survivors pension accrued benefits and the DIC benefits are all tax-free benefits that
do not need to be included on your tax return for more information on a VA survivor benefits
eligibility and how to apply please visit our blog links below also check out our other
videos on survivors benefits and subscribe to our Channel thanks for watching [Music]
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