VA Survivor Benefits for Spouses, Children, and Parents of Deceased Veterans

Families who have lost a loved one who served in the military can struggle to maintain financial stability during a profoundly challenging time. Practical considerations involved in handling daily expenses and budgeting for the future often cause added stress on top of the grieving process. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides survivors' benefits to ensure a level of security for the veteran's family that they might not otherwise have had.

Who Qualifies for VA Survivor Benefits?

Surviving spouses, children, and relatives of deceased veterans may be able to receive cash benefits and other compensation from the VA. Some of these programs are only available for low-income households, while others are based on any service-connected disabilities the veteran may have had. While the eligibility criteria can be complicated, it's important to know which benefits you qualify for so you can plan on having a reliable source of income.

What VA Survivor Benefits Do Spouses of Deceased Veterans Get?

There are several survivor cash benefits available for spouses of deceased veterans: Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC); Survivors Pension; and Aid and Attendance. The kind of benefit you'll qualify for depends on your relationship to the deceased veteran, the nature of the veteran's service, and your current health and financial situation.

Dependents Indemnity Compensation Benefits for Surviving Spouses

DIC is a tax-free benefit for surviving spouses ("widows"), children, and parents of deceased servicemembers who died in the line of duty or as a result of a disability caused by their time in the military. Spouses can qualify for DIC benefits if they can prove certain elements demonstrating an established relationship with the veteran. Both the surviving spouse and the deceased veteran must meet the eligibility criteria for DIC before the spouse can begin to receive benefits.

DIC Veteran Eligibility Requirements

In order for a deceased veteran's family members to receive DIC benefits, there must be evidence that the veteran either:

• died while on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training
• died from a service-connected illness or injury, or
• didn't die from a service-connected illness or injury, but was eligible to receive VA compensation for a service-connected condition rated as "totally disabling" for a certain period of time.

"Totally disabling" means that the veteran was completely unable to work as a result of their health condition incurred in the military. The veteran must have had this disability rating for a qualifying period of time, which can be either:

• 10 years or longer before their death
• since release from active duty and for at least five years immediately before their death, or
• one year or longer before their death if they were a former prisoner of war who died after September 30, 1999.

DIC Recipient Spouse Eligibility Requirements

Even if the deceased veteran is eligible to "give" DIC benefits to their surviving spouse, the spouse must also be eligible to "receive" the benefits. Only surviving spouses who lived with the veteran without a break until their death (or, if separated from the veteran, weren't at fault for the separation) are eligible to receive DIC. In addition, the surviving spouse must also show that they did one of the following:

• had married the veteran within 15 years of their discharge from the period of military service during which the qualifying illness or injury started or got worse,
• had been married to the veteran or service member for at least 1 year, or
• had a child with the veteran.

When Remarried Surviving Spouses Are Eligible for DIC

Younger surviving spouses who remarry usually lose their eligibility for DIC benefits. But if one of the following situations applies to you, you can continue to receive compensation:

• you remarried on or after December 16, 2003, and you were at least 57 years old at the time you remarried, or
• you remarried on or after January 5, 2021, and you were at least 55 years old at the time you remarried.

In summary, surviving spouses generally can receive DIC benefits if their deceased spouse died or was totally disabled before death as a result of their service, they've had an established relationship with the veteran, and they didn't remarry before a certain age.

Survivors Pension for Spouses of Deceased Wartime Veterans

VA Survivors Pension (sometimes called "death pension") offers monthly payments to surviving spouses and qualifying children of wartime veterans, provided they meet certain income and net worth limits set by Congress.

Pension Eligibility Requirements for Surviving Spouses

Unlike DIC, only surviving spouses who haven't remarried—no matter how old they are—can receive survivors pension. But as with DIC, the deceased veteran must also be eligible to "give" benefits to the surviving spouse. In order to "give" survivors pension, the veteran must have been on active duty during certain time periods and must not have left the service with a dishonorable discharge.

Pension Eligibility Requirements for Veterans

Veterans must meet certain service criteria in order for their surviving spouses to get survivors pension. Specifically, any one of the following requirements must be true:

• the veteran entered active duty on or before September 7, 1980, and served at least 90 days on active military service, with at least 1 day during a covered wartime period
• the veteran entered active duty after September 7, 1980, and served at least 24 months or the full period for which they were called or ordered to active duty (with some exceptions) with at least 1 day during a covered wartime period, or
• the veteran was an officer and started on active duty after October 16, 1981, and hadn't previously served on active duty for at least 24 months.

Often veterans and their families believe the veteran's service qualifies as wartime, but the VA uses the term to describe only specific periods of time. For the purpose of determining eligibility for survivors' benefits, "covered wartime period" means the following:

• Mexican Border period (May 9, 1916, to April 5, 1917, for veterans who served in Mexico, on its borders, or in adjacent waters)
• World War I (April 6, 1917, to November 11, 1918)
• World War II (December 7, 1941, to December 31, 1946)
• Korean conflict (June 27, 1950, to January 31, 1955)
• Vietnam War era for veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam (November 1, 1955, to May 7, 1975)
• Vietnam War era for veterans who served outside the Republic of Vietnam (August 5, 1964, to May 7, 1975), and
• Gulf War (August 2, 1990, through a future date to be set by law or presidential proclamation).

Low-Income Requirement

Eligibility for survivors pension benefits is also subject to certain income and asset limits. If you have earnings or resources greater than these limits, you won't be able to receive survivors pension—even if you meet all the other qualifications.

From December 1, 2024, through November 30, 2025, the net worth limit to be eligible for Survivors Pension benefits is $159,240. Your assets and income, as well as those of your dependents, are counted towards the net worth limit for purposes of determining whether you're eligible for survivors pension. "Assets" includes the fair market value of all the real estate and personal property that you own minus the amount of any mortgages. "Income" is the money you earn from a job or retirement pension. Examples of assets and income include salaries, hourly wages, investments (such as stocks or bonds), antique furniture, bonuses and commissions, boats, overtime pay, and tips.

Not all real estate, personal property, or income counts towards the net worth limit, however. Major exceptions include your primary residence, your car, and basic home appliances that you wouldn't take with you if you moved to a new house (like your refrigerator).Similarly, any money that you spend on medical or educational expenses can be subtracted from your total income when determining whether you meet the net worth limit.

Aid and Attendance Benefits for Surviving Spouses

The VA offers supplemental cash assistance in the form of Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits to family members who receive monthly survivors' benefits and need help with daily activities.

Aid and Attendance Eligibility Requirements

If you're a surviving spouse who receives a VA pension or DIC benefits, you can qualify for additional Aid and Attendance if you meet at least one of the following criteria:

• you need another person to help you perform daily activities, like bathing, feeding, and dressing
• you have to stay in bed (or spend a large portion of the day in bed) due to illness
• you're a patient in a nursing home due to the loss of mental or physical abilities related to a disability, or
• your eyesight is significantly limited, meaning that even with glasses or contact lenses you have only 5/200 visual acuity or less in both eyes or concentric contraction of the visual field to 5 degrees or less.

Housebound Allowance

You may be eligible for this benefit if you get a VA pension or DIC benefits and you spend most of your time in your home due to a disabling condition that doesn't go away. (Keep in mind that you can't get a housebound allowance and Aid and Attendance at the same time.)

When Parents and Children Can Qualify for VA Survivor Benefits

Many of the VA benefits for surviving spouses mentioned above are also available for other family members of deceased veterans. For example, parents and children may qualify to receive DIC benefits, and certain dependent children may be eligible for survivors pension benefits. The deceased veteran still has to meet the same service or disability requirements in order to "give" benefits to surviving relatives as they do for a surviving spouse.

DIC Eligibility Criteria for Children and Parents of a Deceased Veteran

Surviving children—including children who were adopted out of the veteran's family—can receive DIC benefits if they're younger than age 18 (or under 23 and attending school), unmarried, and not included on the surviving spouse's compensation. Adult children who became permanently unable to support themselves before age 18 are designated as "helpless children" and can continue to get DIC benefits into adulthood.

Surviving parents—whether biological, adoptive, or foster—can receive DIC benefits if their income is below a certain amount (around $19,000 annually, although the exact amount changes every year).

Survivors Pension Eligibility for Children

Parents of deceased veterans are currently not eligible to receive survivors pensions. However, children can get survivors pension if they're under age 18 (or under 23 and attending school) and are unable to care for themselves due to a disability that happened before age 18.

VA Benefit Amounts for Surviving Spouses, Parents, and Children

If you're eligible for survivors benefits from the VA, the agency will send you a monthly payment calculated according to various criteria such as the type of benefit you qualify for, your current living arrangement, and statutory limitations on the amount that can be paid for a particular benefit.

DIC Benefit Rates for Surviving Spouses and Children

For 2025, the base rate for surviving spouses (who died on or after January 1, 1993) is $1,653.07 per month. Depending on your living situation and the veteran's disability status at death, you may be eligible for additional monthly amounts—visualized in the chart below.

DIC Benefit Rates for Surviving Parents

Calculating DIC benefit rates for surviving parents is much more complicated than it is for surviving spouses and children. That's because the exact amount depends on whether the veteran has one or two surviving parents, whether or not the parents have remarried or aren't living together, and how much money the surviving parents make—in addition to another variable called the "rate of decrease" (or $1 decrement).

Fortunately, the VA has provided some helpful charts you can use to estimate the amount of your monthly benefit as a surviving parent of a deceased veteran. The page also walks you through the steps you need to calculate your DIC rates based on your individual situation.

Survivors Pension Rates

If you qualify for survivors pension benefits as a spouse or child of a deceased veteran, the VA will base your payment amount on the difference between your income (as discussed above) and a limit that Congress sets called the Maximum Annual Pension Rate, or MAPR. Your MAPR amount is the most you can receive in survivors pension payments. MAPRs are adjusted every year to account for cost-of-living expenses.

The exact amount of your MAPR depends on several factors, such as how many dependents you have and whether you qualify for Housebound or Aid and Attendance benefits. For example, if you're a surviving spouse who qualifies for Aid and Attendance and you have one dependent child, your MAPR is $21,696. If your yearly income is $10,000, then the amount of your VA survivors pension will be the difference between your MAPR and your income ($21,696-$10,000=$11,696 for the year, or $974.66 paid each month).

Calculating the MAPR for qualified surviving children is much simpler—a flat rate of $2,902, regardless of living situation. You can learn more about how MAPR works and estimate your current amount using the charts on the VA's web page covering survivors pension benefit rates.

Accrued Benefits

Accrued benefits are benefits that the VA owed to a deceased veteran but weren't paid prior to death. For example, if your veteran spouse had a claim for disability compensation pending but they died before the claim was approved, you may be entitled to the back payments that your spouse would have received.

If accrued benefits are payable upon the death of a veteran, the VA will pay them to the first living person in accordance to the table below.

Surviving spouses or children who meet the DIC requirements described above can also apply to receive any retroactive sum payment for service-connected disability compensation that was due the deceased veteran. At times, this can be a significant sum of money.

How to Apply for VA Survivors Benefits

Before you apply for benefits, you may wish to submit an intent to file form. An intent to file gives the VA a heads up that you're about to file for benefits and sets a potential start date for your benefits if your application is approved. That means you may be able to get retroactive payments from the VA for the time between when you notified the agency of your intent to file and when your claim was approved.

DIC Benefits Forms

For DIC benefits, the type of application you'll need to fill out will depend on your relationship to the deceased servicemember and whether the death occurred during service. Surviving spouses and children of servicemembers who died while on active duty will need to complete VA Form 21P-534a, Application for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation by a Surviving Spouse or Child—In-Service Death. You should have a military casualty assistance officer who can help you complete the form and submit it to the appropriate regional VA office.

Surviving spouses and children of veterans who did not die on active duty should fill out VA Form 21P-534EZ, Application for DIC, Survivors Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits. Surviving parents should complete VA Form 21P-535, Application for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation by Parent(s).

Survivors Pension Form

Applications for survivors' pensions are done using VA Form 21P-534EZ, no matter how the veteran's death occurred or the nature of your relationship (spouse, child, or parent) to the deceased veteran.

Aid and Attendance or Housebound Allowance Forms

To apply for Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits, you'll need to complete VA Form 21-2680, Examination for Housebound Status or Permanent Need for Regular Aid and Attendance. You can have your doctor fill out the section labeled "Examination Information," and you may include additional relevant information, such as doctor's reports or details about struggles you have in your daily routine.

If you're living in a nursing home, you should also submit VA Form 21-0779, Request for Nursing Home Information in Connection with Claim for Aid and Attendance.

Where to Send the Completed Forms

Once you've completed the appropriate form or forms, you have several options for submitting them to the VA. Many applicants submit their forms online using the Quick Submit tool through AccessVA, but you may prefer to mail the physical copies to the following address:

Department of Veterans Affairs
Pension Intake Center
P.O. Box 5365
Janesville, WI 53547-5365

You can also bring the forms in person to a regional VA office near you. Some people may feel more comfortable with a VA-accredited representative, or VSO, who can help make sure your file is processed with the evidence you need to get your claim for survivors benefits approved.

What to Do If Your Application for Survivors Benefits is Denied

You have the right to appeal a denial. The VA provides three different appellate options—higher-level review, supplemental claims, and board appeals. Board appeals can be conducted by way of direct review, submission of new evidence, or holding a hearing. Appeal requests can be completed online, or if you prefer to submit a hard copy, you can mail them to the same address where you sent the paperwork for the original claim (mentioned above). For more information, see our article on how to appeal if the VA denies you benefits.

You aren't required to hire a lawyer either for your initial application for benefits or when filing an appeal, but it's typically a smart move. Working with an accredited representative who is familiar with the VA system can go a long way towards relieving much of the stress of filing for benefits or appealing a denial during a difficult period in your life. You may also wish to contact the Office of Survivors Assistance for any questions related to additional benefits and financial services for relatives of deceased veterans.