Veteran Disability Benefits After Death: DIC, Pension, and CHAMPVA

When a veteran dies, their monthly VA disability compensation stops and does not pass to a spouse or child. Surviving family members can, however, claim a separate set of veteran disability benefits after death: any compensation the veteran had already earned but not yet been paid, plus survivor benefits in their own name. The main one is Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, a tax-free monthly payment that starts at $1,699.36 for an eligible surviving spouse in 2026.¹ Two deadlines shape almost everything that follows, so the order of steps matters.

Report the Death to the VA First

Until the VA is told the veteran has died, direct deposits of disability compensation may keep landing in the account. Every payment issued after the date of death becomes an overpayment the family will have to sort out later.²

The fastest route is a phone call to 800-827-1000 (TTY: 711), option 5, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET. You can also report in person at a VA regional office or by mail to the VA Claims Intake Center in Janesville, Wisconsin, though mail takes longer and payments may continue in the meantime. Have the veteran’s full name, Social Security number or VA claim number, date of birth, date of death, and branch of service on hand. In person or by mail, include copies of the death certificate and the DD-214 if you have them.²

Accrued Benefits the Veteran Was Already Owed

If the veteran had a claim pending, a recent rating increase not yet paid, or simply a final monthly payment outstanding, that money does not disappear. It goes to survivors in a fixed order: surviving spouse first, then children in equal shares, then dependent parents in equal shares.³

The deadline is one year from the date of death. Filing for DIC or Survivors Pension with the standard form automatically counts as an accrued-benefits claim, so a separate filing is not required. Wait longer than a year, though, and the money is gone.⁴

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation

DIC is the primary survivor benefit. It is a tax-free monthly payment to the surviving spouse, children, or parents of a veteran whose death was connected to their military service.⁵

DIC is also available when the veteran’s death was not service-connected, provided the veteran held a total (100%) disability rating for long enough before dying:

Rated totally disabled for at least 10 continuous years immediately before death, or
Rated totally disabled continuously from the date of discharge and for at least 5 years immediately before death, or
A former prisoner of war rated totally disabled for at least 1 year immediately before death.

Under this statute the survivors are paid as if the death itself were service-connected.⁶

Who Qualifies

A surviving spouse claiming under the 10-year or 5-year path must have been married to the veteran for at least one year immediately before death, or have had a child with the veteran. When the death is directly from a service-connected condition, no minimum marriage length applies as long as the marriage was valid.⁶

Remarriage is no longer an automatic bar. A surviving spouse who remarried on or after January 5, 2021, at age 55 or older can still receive DIC. For remarriages between December 16, 2003, and January 4, 2021, the age threshold was 57.⁷

Dependent children qualify if they are under 18, or under 23 and enrolled in a VA-approved school. A child who became permanently unable to care for themselves because of a disability that began before age 18 remains eligible regardless of current age.⁷

Dependent parents qualify based on financial need and file on a separate form, VA Form 21P-535.

2026 Payment Amounts

For a surviving spouse of a veteran who died on or after January 1, 1993, the base DIC rate effective December 1, 2025 is $1,699.36 per month. For deaths before that date, the rate depends on the veteran’s pay grade.¹

Several add-ons raise the monthly amount:

An additional amount for each qualifying child under 18.
The eight-year provision: an extra monthly amount when the veteran was rated totally disabled for at least 8 continuous years before death and the surviving spouse was married to the veteran for all 8 of those years.⁸
Aid and Attendance: an extra $421.00 per month for a surviving spouse who needs help with daily activities like eating, bathing, or dressing.¹
Housebound: an extra $197.22 per month for a surviving spouse who cannot leave home because of a disability.¹

Survivors Pension for Low-Income Wartime Survivors

The Survivors Pension is a separate, income-based benefit for the surviving spouse or unmarried dependent child of a wartime veteran. It has nothing to do with whether the death was service-connected.⁹

Countable income must fall below the Maximum Annual Pension Rate that Congress sets each year, and net worth cannot exceed $163,699 from December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026. The monthly payment is the difference between your annual income and the MAPR, divided by 12, with higher amounts available for Aid and Attendance or housebound status.¹⁰

You cannot draw DIC and Survivors Pension at the same time. If you qualify for both, the VA pays the higher one, which is almost always DIC.

Burial and Memorial Benefits

The VA pays a burial allowance toward funeral and interment costs. The amount depends on whether the death was service-connected:

Service-connected death: up to $2,000 for veterans who died on or after September 11, 2001.
Non-service-connected death: up to $1,002 for burial expenses plus up to $1,002 for a plot, for veterans who died on or after October 1, 2025.

Those figures apply for 2026.¹¹

Separate from the cash allowance, a veteran may be buried in a national or state veterans cemetery at no cost to the family. That typically covers the gravesite, opening and closing of the grave, a headstone or marker, and perpetual care, regardless of whether the death was service-connected.

CHAMPVA Health Coverage

The Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs covers surviving spouses and children who are not eligible for TRICARE. You may qualify if the veteran died from a service-connected condition, or was permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected condition at the time of death.¹²

CHAMPVA works much like TRICARE Select, paying for doctor visits, hospital stays, prescriptions, and other medical services. Once you become eligible for Medicare Part A, you generally lose CHAMPVA unless you also carry Medicare Part B, in which case CHAMPVA acts as a secondary payer. This trips up many surviving spouses approaching age 65.¹³

SBP and DIC Are Now Paid in Full

If the veteran was a military retiree who elected the Survivor Benefit Plan, that annuity is paid by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and is separate from anything the VA owes. For years, SBP was reduced dollar-for-dollar by DIC, which wiped out the SBP annuity for many spouses. Congress fully eliminated that offset as of January 1, 2023.¹⁴

A surviving spouse now receives the full SBP payment from DFAS and the full DIC payment from the VA, with no reduction to either. The Special Survivors Indemnity Allowance that partially offset the old reduction is no longer paid. If the veteran enrolled in SBP, confirm you are collecting both benefits separately.¹⁴

How to Apply

Surviving spouses and children use VA Form 21P-534EZ, the Application for DIC, Survivors Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits. One form covers all three benefits.¹⁵ Surviving parents file VA Form 21P-535 instead. The parent form was updated in June 2024 to reflect PACT Act changes, so use the current version.

You can file online at VA.gov, by mail to the VA Claims Intake Center, or in person at a VA regional office. Have these ready:

Death certificate or other public record of the death
Marriage certificate for a surviving spouse
Birth certificates for dependent children
DD-214 or other military discharge papers

Filing within a year of the death matters for more than accrued benefits. If DIC is approved and the claim was filed within one year, payments run back to the first day of the month after the veteran died. File later than that and the effective date is set by when the VA received the claim, which can cost months of retroactive pay.

1
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Current DIC Rates for Spouses and Dependents
2
Veterans Affairs. How to Report the Death of a Veteran to VA
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 5121 – Payment of Certain Accrued Benefits Upon Death of a Beneficiary
4
eCFR. 38 CFR 3.1000 – Entitlement Under 38 USC 5121 to Benefits Due and Unpaid Upon Death of a Beneficiary
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 1310 – Deaths Entitling Survivors to Dependency and Indemnity Compensation
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 1318 – Benefits for Survivors of Certain Veterans Rated Totally Disabled at Time of Death
7
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. About VA DIC for Spouses, Dependents, and Parents
8
GovInfo. 38 USC 1311 – Dependency and Indemnity Compensation to a Surviving Spouse
9
Veterans Affairs. Survivors Pension
10
Veterans Affairs. Current Survivors Pension Benefit Rates
11
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Burial Allowance and Transportation Benefits
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 1781 – Medical Care for Survivors and Dependents of Certain Veterans
13
eCFR. 38 CFR Part 17 – CHAMPVA Medical Care for Survivors and Dependents of Certain Veterans
14
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. SBP DIC News
15
Veterans Affairs. About VA Form 21P-534EZ