Military Widow Benefits: DIC, SBP, and TRICARE After Remarriage

Whether you keep your military widow benefits if you remarry depends on the specific benefit and, in most cases, how old you are on your wedding day. Remarry at 55 or older and the two biggest financial benefits — Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) and the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) — continue without interruption. TRICARE is the outlier: it ends the day you remarry at any age, and it does not come back. Several benefits, including the Fry Scholarship, commissary access, and national cemetery burial, stay with you regardless of when or whether you remarry.

The Age Thresholds You Need to Know

Different benefits use different age cutoffs, which is where most of the confusion comes from. The relevant ages are:

Age 55 for DIC, SBP, and CHAMPVA
Age 57 for Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) and VA home loan eligibility
Age 60 for Social Security survivor benefits (age 50 if you’re a disabled surviving spouse)
No age at all for TRICARE — remarriage ends it

If you remarry below the applicable threshold, most benefits stop but can be reinstated later if that marriage ends. TRICARE is the exception to that pattern too.

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC)

DIC is a tax-free monthly VA payment for surviving spouses of service members whose death was connected to their military service.¹ Your income and assets do not affect eligibility.

If you remarry at age 55 or older, your DIC keeps coming. That threshold was lowered from 57 by the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act, effective January 5, 2021.² If you remarried between December 16, 2003 and January 4, 2021, the older age-57 rule still applies to you. Remarry before 55 and DIC stops, though it can be reinstated later if that marriage ends.

Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP)

The SBP is a Defense Department annuity paying an eligible surviving spouse up to 55 percent of the service member’s retired pay each month.³ The age-55 cutoff has been part of the statute from the start.

Remarry before 55 and the annuity is suspended. Remarry at 55 or older and payments continue unchanged.⁴ If a suspended annuity later needs to be restarted because the new marriage ended, DFAS resumes payment effective the first day of the month the marriage ended. One catch worth flagging: if your new spouse was also a service member and you would qualify for an SBP annuity through that marriage, you have to pick one. You cannot collect both.

Getting Both DIC and SBP

Surviving spouses eligible for both programs used to have DIC subtracted from their SBP payment, a policy known as the widow’s tax. Congress phased that offset out between 2021 and 2023, and it has been fully eliminated since January 2023. If you qualify for both, you now receive the full SBP annuity from DFAS and the full DIC payment from the VA, with no reduction to either.⁵

TRICARE Ends at Remarriage

TRICARE is the harshest rule in the set. Your eligibility ends the moment you remarry, at any age, and it is not restored even if the later marriage ends in divorce or death.⁶ 7 You must report the remarriage to the DEERS Support Office and turn in your ID card. If you keep using TRICARE past the wedding date, the program will recoup every claim it paid during the period you were ineligible.

CHAMPVA

CHAMPVA is a separate VA health care program for surviving spouses of veterans who died from service-connected conditions and who are not eligible for TRICARE. It uses the same age-55 rule as DIC: remarry at 55 or older and CHAMPVA coverage continues.² Remarry younger and lose it, and CHAMPVA can be restored if that marriage ends through death, divorce, or annulment.⁸ A surviving spouse who lost TRICARE by remarrying after 55 may qualify for CHAMPVA as an alternative.

Social Security Survivor Benefits

Social Security uses a different age. If you remarry at 60 or older, your survivor benefits on the deceased service member’s earnings record are unaffected.⁹ For a disabled surviving spouse, the threshold is age 50. Remarrying below the applicable age generally disqualifies you, but if that later marriage ends through death, divorce, or annulment, you can become re-entitled starting the first month the marriage ended, so long as you still meet the other eligibility rules.

Benefits That Ride Through Any Remarriage

Some benefits are unaffected by remarriage at any age.

Fry Scholarship

The Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship, part of the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33), stays with you if you remarry.¹⁰ DEA (Chapter 35) is different: it uses the age-57 rule, and eligibility can be reinstated if a disqualifying marriage later ends.²

Commissary and Exchange

Federal law guarantees a surviving spouse’s access to military commissaries and MWR retail facilities regardless of marital status. A remarried surviving spouse has the same shopping privileges as one who has not remarried.¹¹

National Cemetery Burial

A surviving spouse who remarried a non-veteran and whose death occurs on or after January 1, 2000, remains eligible for burial in a VA national cemetery based on the marriage to the eligible veteran.¹²

VA Home Loan Eligibility

VA home loan eligibility uses the age-57 threshold. You can obtain a Certificate of Eligibility if the veteran died from a service-connected cause and you either have not remarried or remarried at 57 or older.¹³ Qualifying surviving spouses are also exempt from the VA funding fee that other borrowers pay.¹⁴

Getting Benefits Back if the New Marriage Ends

If you lost DIC, SBP, CHAMPVA, DEA, or VA home loan eligibility because you remarried below the applicable age, those benefits can be restored when the later marriage ends through death, divorce, or annulment.²⁴

How you apply depends on the benefit:

For DIC, complete VA Form 21-534EZ and submit it to your regional VA office with proof the marriage ended, such as a divorce decree or death certificate. VA Form 21P-0537 can be used to verify or update marital status. Follow up with the Veterans Benefits Administration at 800-827-1000 to confirm receipt.¹⁵
For SBP, contact DFAS directly with documentation that the marriage has ended. Payments resume effective the first day of the month the marriage was dissolved.

TRICARE is the one benefit that does not come back. If it matters to your household health coverage, factor that in before you remarry.⁷

Reporting the Change

Notify both the VA and DFAS promptly when you remarry, and send the supporting documents — marriage certificates, divorce decrees, death certificates — as soon as you have them. Late notification can create overpayment debts you or your family will have to repay.¹⁶ Report the remarriage to the DEERS Support Office and return your military ID card if your TRICARE eligibility is ending.⁷ The obligation runs both ways: if a later marriage ends and you want benefits reinstated, file the paperwork immediately so payments can start again as early as the month the marriage concluded.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 1310 – Deaths Entitling Survivors to Dependency and Indemnity Compensation
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 103 – Determination of Marital Relationships
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 73, Subchapter II – Survivor Benefit Plan
4
GovInfo. 10 USC 1450 – Payment of Annuity, Eligible Beneficiaries
5
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Congress Enacted Changes to the Survivor Benefit Plan
6
TRICARE. Survivors
7
TRICARE. I’m a Widowed Spouse – Do I Lose My TRICARE Eligibility If I Remarry
8
VA News. New CHAMPVA Policy to Benefit Surviving Spouses
9
Social Security Administration. SSA Handbook 406 – Effect of Remarriage on Widower Benefits
10
Department of Veterans Affairs. Fry Scholarship
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1062 – Certain Former Spouses and Surviving Spouses
12
National Cemetery Administration. Eligibility – Persons Eligible for Burial in a National Cemetery
13
Department of Veterans Affairs. Home Loans for Surviving Spouses
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 3701 – Definitions
15
Department of Veterans Affairs. FAQs – Office of Survivors Assistance
16
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. When to Update Your Account