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Spouses can be an eligible survivor if they live with the veteran without a break until the veteran’s death, unless there was a break that was not the fault of the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse also has to be married within 15 years of discharge um or has to be married for at least one year prior to the veteran’s death or married for any amount of time if they had a child with the veteran. Surviving spouses who remarried can still be eligible for DAC benefits if they were uh remarried on or after
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December 16th, 2003 and were 57 years of age or older at the time of the remarage or if they remarried after January 5th, 2021 and were 55 years of age or older at the time they remarried, they can still qualify for DIC benefits for the deceased veteran. Children can also be an eligible survivor for purposes of DIC entitlement. The child must not be married. They must not be included on the surviving spouse’s compensation award. And the child must be under the age of 18 or under the age of 23 if they
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are attending an approved secondary school. Adult children are generally not entitled to DIC benefits unless that adult child is considered what the VA calls a helpless child. That means that they became permanently disabled themselves prior to reaching the age of 18. Parents can also potentially qualify for DIC benefits. The parent of the veteran must be the biological, adoptive, or foster parent of the veteran and they must also meet certain income requirements. Unlike spouses and children, parents have to show that they
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have an economic need for the DIC benefits. Again, va.gov gov will have a list of the most current qualifications uh for parents and DIC eligibility. So, I’d recommend checking that out because it does change a little bit year to year. And also parents can only be DIC um beneficiaries if the veteran died on active duty or in the line of duty or they died from a service-connected disability.
This transcription was AI populated.
