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Claire Babcock and today we're going to be discussing common mistakes made on claims for
VA survivors benefits so Michelle do you want to get us started with some background on what
exactly survivors benefits includes yeah so VA offers several survivors benefits to dependents
of U.S military veterans who have passed away so the dependents may include surviving
spouses dependent children and even sometimes dependent parents so the types of benefits
are a few different ones that survivors might be eligible for so they include dependency indemnity
compensation often referred to as DIC benefits it's a monthly benefit be able to pay when a
veteran passed away from causes related to their military service or a veteran was rated disabled
totally disabled for a period VA requires prior to death which is often 10 years or five years
from discharge you also have VA survivors pension as long as it's a veteran of wartime period who
and that the dependent meets the certain income requirements set by Congress you also have accrued
benefits this would be a retroactive pay the veteran would have been would have been eligible
for or would have received um if they were alive there are also additional benefits that uh some
surviving attendants may be eligible for they include educational assistance burial benefits
health care and home loan programs thanks Michelle and I know we have a lot of videos that dive a
lot deeper into each of those different benefits that I definitely recommend checking out if you're
looking for more information on what exactly those benefits are but Claire if one thinks
that they're eligible for these benefits how would they need to go about applying
so to apply for VA survivors benefits the surviving dependent should download and fill
out a VA form 21p 534ez and that'll be available on va's website once the form is complete it can
be submitted online via mail or even in person at a VA Regional Office a couple of other important
things to note about survivor's benefits is that they're not taxable so survivor's pension accrued
benefits and DIC these are all tax-free benefits that do not need to be included on a tax return
um and another misconception about DIC might be that it's the same rate that a deceased veteran
was receiving during their lifetime um DIC rates are different so when applying for DIC
that's just something to keep in mind um that as a Survivor you'll receive a different rate
of monthly compensation than the veteran did yeah that's a really good point Claire it's
important to know that once the veteran passes away their benefits or their monthly benefits
do stop from the date that they passed away as of December 1st 2022 the current rate for
DIC is 1562.73 but there are some ways that that could increase depending on the surviving spouses
um background their need for in attendance their dependency information things of that
nature so just some extra information to keep in mind when filing claims particularly for DIC
now there are a lot of mistakes that can be made when filing for these types of survivors benefits
um they can be really confusing and really frustrating and mistakes can cause major
delays in the processing of the of them or sometimes just an outright denial from VA
so the first Common mistake that we'll talk about is just not understanding what those eligibility
requirements are when filing these claims survivors often forget or just don't realize
that there are different eligibility requirements for each type of benefit these requirements can
apply to the dependent the veteran or to both just depending on again the type of benefit
so an example of some requirements that might need to be met specifically for survivor's
pension Michelle mentioned earlier that there are income requirements that the Survivor would
need to meet that are set in place by Congress but the veteran also has to have met certain
requirements prior to their passing specifically with regard to their service so they must have
served on or before September 7 1980 with at least 90 days of active military service and
at least one of those days being active during a specified wartime period or if they served
after September 7th 1980 they had to have served 24 months for the full period for
which they were called or ordered to active duty with at least one of those days during
a wartime period and they had to have been not dishonorably discharged another example
is for spouses seeking DIC both the veteran and the spouse have to meet certain criteria
so in addition to the veterans requirements the surviving spouse would have typically had to have
been married to the veteran for at least one year prior to their passing surviving Partners who were
not technically married may still also qualify for DIC benefits under certain circumstances
um so one circumstance that might meet that requirement is if the state's law allows for
common law marriages so just make sure you're aware of what your state actually allows as
part of their law or if the veteran and surviving spouse share a child and either lived together
continuously until the time of the Veteran's death or if they were separated the surviving
spouse was not at fault for that separation and again we do have more information on different
requirements for different benefits that can be found on our blog that I recommend checking out
the next mistake that we'll talk about is failing to provide necessary evidence so
Michelle do you want to get into that a little bit more yeah so providing the right evidence to
support your claim is essential to avoid delaying your claim and the benefits you're dependent on
so with DIC claims there are some important information or documentation that you must meet
um or be sending to VA in order to help your process along so this could include
the veterans death certificate which indicates the cause of death a marriage certificate any
prior divorce decrees birth certificates and school transcripts it also could be helpful
to be sending in medical records that support or show the cause of death was related to military
service or service connected conditions again submitting this evidence with initial application
for DIC can help speed up the adjudication process because then they'll have all the document all the
documentation at once necessary to proceed through with the claim yeah and if if you don't submit
it with the claim what will end up happening is part of va's Duty to assist will require them to
um contact you for that information so it requires time for them to go through what they already have
send you the letter wait for you to respond and then process it at that point so um getting it in
as soon as possible before they ask can definitely help to speed up that process us the next mistake
that we'll talk about is not pursuing an appeal or not filing claims within a particular amount of
time so Claire can you talk about why that's such an important thing for survivors to be aware of
definitely so one thing to keep in mind is that if a veteran passes away and their dependent wants to
seek DIC in order to preserve the effective date to get benefits from the date that the
veteran passed away the Survivor should file the claim within one year of the veterans death in
order to preserve that date um also another thing that is important to keep in mind is
to file an appeal within the correct time frame if you do receive a denial from VA so a lot of the
time many survivors will get a decision denying them benefits and this can be really discouraging
and we have them feeling like there's nothing that they can do and want to give up on their claim but
it's important to note that you have options you can file an appeal within a year VA has several
appeal options depending on your situation if you just want to have another higher level adjudicator
at the regional office take a look at the claim you could seek an appeal in higher level review if
you have additional evidence you want to submit or identify you can file a supplemental claim appeal
you could also file a notice of disagreement to the board of veterans Appeals um but the
most important thing is to file an appeal within a year because doing so will preserve your effective
date which will eventually entitle you to a larger sum of retroactive benefits in the future
um and this can also lead to other benefits like health care or education benefits I know that
Kayla mentioned those are uh we have a lot of other videos about those on our website as well
um one other thing to keep in mind is even if you are granted DIC benefits you may be entitled to
even more there are certain higher or enhanced rates of DIC depending on your situation so
um one situation might be if the late veteran was rated 100 or unemployable
due to their service-connected disabilities for eight years preceding their death and the
dependent was married to that veteran for those same eight years then the surviving dependent
is entitled to an even higher rate of DIC than they otherwise would be there are other higher
rates available for things like if the Survivor has a disability and requires Aid in attendance
or has a disability and is housebound and if the Survivor has won more children under 18.
thanks Claire and I think that kind of Segway is nice
common mistake Stakes for getting that help is available these claims are really difficult to
navigate and they do often take a long time just because there are so many different things that
VA is looking at when they're making decisions on these types of benefits so it may be beneficial
to seek assistance from a veteran service organization VA accredited claims agent or a
VA accredited attorney and accredited really just means that the individual is legally authorized to
represent veterans before VI seeking assistance can help to ensure that all of the proper forms
are completed and necessary evidence is submitted within the appropriate time frames to make sure
you're getting the most out of the benefits that you're entitled to the accredited Advocates here
at cck have used their knowledge and experience to assist numerous survivors with their claims
so if you'd like please feel free to contact us and we'll see if we're able to help you as well
but I think that's a good place for us to wrap up today for more information on VA
survivors benefits eligibility and how to apply please visit our blog also check out our other
videos and subscribe to our channel to stay in the know thank you for tuning in [Music]
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