Losing a loved one can be awfully difficult for a Veteran’s family members. This loss can also lead to financial distress. Widows of veterans get many benefits. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offers a number of monetary benefits for widows and current spouses of wartime veterans.
Veterans Benefits for Widows
These benefits contain dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC benefits), survivor’s pension, and burial benefits.
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Benefits:
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation is a monthly benefit that can be paid to survivors of disabled veterans who were killed on active duty and for survivors of veterans who died from service-connected disabilities or had a 100 percent disability rating for a long time before death. These benefits give are also tax-free.
Related Article: Military Dependent Scholarships
Widow of a disabled veteran
The VA has criteria in place to determine who an extant spouse is. There are several requirements that a widow must meet to be eligible for DIC. The requirements are as follows:
- A widow of a disabled veteran must have married a veteran who died on active duty, active duty preparation, or inactive duty training, or
- Married the deceased Veteran
- wedded the veteran at least one year previous to the veteran’s passing
- Had a child with the veteran and lived with the Veteran for some time until his It is important to note that during the marriage, there must be no separations unless the present spouse was not responsible for the separation.
- A surviving spouse must have matrimonial a veteran who died due to a service-connected injury or disease.
Widow pension benefits
Survivor’s Pension carries his own set of eligibility requirements for the deceased veteran as well as the surviving spouse. The deceased Veteran must have met the subsequent service requirements:
- For service, the Veteran must have served at least 90 days of active military once-over, with at last one day during a wartime period.
- If the Veteran entered active duty, they must have served a total of 24 months or the full period for which called or ordered to active duty with a least one day through a wartime period.
- The veteran must have been discharged from service under other than disgraceful conditions.
Eligibility requirements
The eligibility requirements for the surviving spouse are as follows:
- The spouse of disabled veteran who die, income must be below the income limit that is listed in the Survivor’s Pension Rate.
- The surviving spouse’s net merit meet the limit set for the Community Spouse Resource the surviving spouse must be unmarried. If were remarried after the veteran passed and the marriage ended, this requirement does not apply.
- It’s important to note that current children may also be eligible for survivor’s pension.
Military spouse Benefits After Death
The VA has burial allowances that are remunerated at a flat rate. These allowances help cover eligible Veterans’ burial and funeral costs and are paid at the greatest amount allowed by law given to widows. These benefits can also cover fixed cost like gravesites and headstones. In 2014, VA regulation altered to help simplify the program and now, eligible surviving spouses are paid without human intervention for this benefit upon notification of the Veteran’s death.