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welcome to cck live I'm Nicholas Briggs an accredited claims agent here at Chisholm
Chisholm and Kilpatrick and I'm joined by fellow accredited agents Bethany cook and Caleb D'Onofrio
today we'll be discussing VA benefits for Widow survivors and dependents of Agent Orange exposed
veterans so before we get started I just want to provide a brief overview of what agent orange is
and how it relates to a veteran's military service agent orange is an herbicide mixture that was used
extensively to Deforest large areas of the environment during the Vietnam War era Asian
orange created the highly toxic dioxin contaminant known as 2378 tetrachloro dibenzo p-dioxin or tcdd
for short as a byproduct this specific dioxin takes years to break down once it's been released
into the environment it can cause many adverse health effects um both immediately and many years
later agent orange again with the contaminant tcdd was used widely throughout Vietnam during
the Vietnam War era however the use of Asian orange and other such herbicides was not exclusive
to Vietnam it was used in many other areas including Thailand's Korea so on and so forth
so it was used in many of the surrounding countries and areas in Vietnam as well as
some places in the United States so with that in mind Bethany can you tell us a bit more about
how VA benefits for agent orange exposed veterans have changed recently sure uh so recently um the
Congress passed the honoring or pact act which was signed into law by President Biden so this
created a presumption of service connection for additional diseases due to Asian orange exposure
and it also expanded the presumption of exposure to herbicides like Asian orange to other areas
for service members with active military Naval Air or space service in those locations
so like Nick said um while VA already presumed exposures to Veterans who served in Vietnam as
well as veterans who could prove service in the Korean demilitarized zone uh The Pact act expanded
the presumption to Veterans who served in Thailand Laos Cambodia Guam uh and the Johnson atol based
um during a certain time frames so you can find the specific time frames on va's website and you
can also find a full list of conditions presumed due to exposure as well as the new conditions that
The Pact act added on va's website and you can also take a look at cck recently I did a couple
videos on the additional benefits resulting from the packed Act but this act was great
news it expanded VA benefits to thousands of additional um Vietnam War era veterans
great thanks Bethany um so with that mind we've talked a bit about who these Vietnam War era
veterans are who might have been exposed to agent orange during their military service
um Kayla can you tell us a bit about the benefits that are available to the surviving spouses and
dependents of these veterans sure so VA does offer certain benefits such as compensation or health
care benefits to surviving spouses and dependents including dependent children or parents of
veterans who passed away as a result of diseases that may be related to their agent orange exposure
one of those benefits is called dependency and indemnity compensation which is more
often referred to as DIC this is a monthly benefit that's awarded to surviving spouses or dependent
children or parents of a service member whose dieted action or died from a service-connected
condition so the surviving spouse or dependent children or parents of a veteran who is exposed
to agent orange and developed a disease that contributed to their death as a result of that
exposure may be eligible for this compensation same-sex spouses of military veterans are also
afforded the same beneficiary rights as those of heterosexual military veterans as long as
you're illegally married and a military couple of any orientation can apply to collect these
Federal benefits you just have to show proof of a legal marriage um this form of compensation is
entirely separate from the disability benefits that the veteran may have been receiving while
they were alive if they did have service-connected conditions VA disability benefits that a veteran
may have been receiving will be discontinued at the time of their passing so this is completely
separate from anything that the veteran had as of December 1st 2021 the current DIC rate is 1437.66
um and under under the packdac survivor's Independents can file a claim for DIC benefits
effective immediately and these benefits can apply retroactively for DIC claimants
another benefit that might be available are VA approved benefits these are benefits for if a
veteran had a claim that was still pending at the time of his or her passing meaning
they had an active claimer appeal or they had a decision that the time to appeal had
not expired before they passed away their surviving spouse may be substituted into
the pending clean as the claimant and they can sort of take over the appeals process from there
um if service connection or an increased reading is later awarded the surviving spouse will receive
VA accrued benefits and what this means is they will see they will receive a retroactive payment
that the veteran would have received if they were alive this payment is calculated from the
affected date of the benefit granted up until the point of the Veteran's death it's not a monthly
payment it's just sort of a lump sum payment that you would receive for retroactive benefits
perfect thanks Caleb so in addition to these Financial benefits that Kayla covered for us
there are some additional benefits available to both surviving spouses and the children of
Veterans as well um so if a veteran who passes away from an Asian orange related disability
they're surviving spouses and children may be entitled to Medical Health Care benefits under
the civilian Health medical program of the Department of Veterans Affairs for sure this
is called champ VA and like I said Champion is a health benefits program where VA shares the
cost of certain health care services and supplies with eligible beneficiaries so they're not going
to cover everything but they will share that cost and the champ VA program typically covers services
including Pharmacy medical equipment Family Planning and maternity Mental Health Care and More
um in addition to the health care benefits themselves some additional benefits for
survivors might include dependents educational assistance home loan benefits veterans burial
allowance dealing with reimbursement for the cost of the veterans funeral and many other
benefits may be available to surviving spouses and we've covered this on our blog before so feel free
to visit our website for more information about what benefits might be available to you if your
spouse passed away from an agent orange related condition um so that basically covers all the
types of benefits available to these veterans and their families um but we haven't actually covered
how we apply for these benefits so Bethany can you tell us a bit about how the process works
sure uh so the primary form that you're going to use to apply for these benefits is the VA form
21p-534 easy otherwise known as the application for DIC deaf pension and or accrued benefits form
so this is the official application that you will use to submit a claim for these benefits although
there are for some benefits additional forms that you might also have to file with the VA form 534
so definitely before you actually do submit this to the VA make sure to check their website to make
sure that you can fill out all of the necessary forms for the benefit that you're applying for
besides the form you're going to have to submit additional documentation um so the primary
documentation that you're going to have to submit is proof of your relationship or your dependent's
relationship to the veteran so this evidence could include marriage certificates divorce certificates
death certificates birth certificates and more so again it's very important to verify that you're
submitting all of the required documentation which you can find listed on va's website
thanks Bethany and thanks Kayla for all of that helpful information
um and thank you all for tuning in with us today uh please be sure to check out our
blog and our other videos for more information about different topics that we've discussed and
please don't forget to follow us on social And subscribe to our Channel thank you
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