Question:
Hi, Jim. Thanks to you back in 2014, my husband applied for and received 100% disability rating for his high risk prostate cancer. As we do estate planning for the future, maybe you can help us again since my husband's cancer is now stage 4. There is an eight-year qualification rule for spousal DIC payments that military.com describes as: The veteran must have been rated that way for at least 8 continuous years immediately preceding death AND the surviving spouse had to be married to the veteran for those same 8 years. My husband applied for disability payments in November, 2014 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. due to Agent Orange exposure. He got a notice in March 2015 that he qualified for !00% disability payments. Payments were backdated retroactively to Nov. 1, 2014. So when does the eight-year rule start: diagnosis date, application date in November, 2014 and retroactive payments began, or March, 2015 when notification about monthly payments began? Thanks in advance for your help to all disabled vets and their families.
Jim's Reply
I'm familiar with the article, not one of my favorites as it's confused a lot of people. https://www.military.com/benefits/survivor-benefits/dependency-and-indemnity-compensation.html
The surviving spouse of a disabled veteran may or may not be eligible for DIC benefits. DIC benefits aren't a part of the veterans disability benefits, they're in a class of their own. For the surviving spouse be eligible for DIC benefits the veteran must die of a rated service connected condition OR have been rated as 100% P & T for at least 10 uninterrupted years.
The veteran who has been rated as P & T for at least 10 uninterrupted years can get run over by a bus and the surviving spouse is eligible for DIC. Veterans...you've been warned.
The 8 year rule you're speaking of is for an additional benefit to the base rate after eligibility for DIC is established. "Add $288.27 if, at the time of death, the veteran was rated 100% disabled or unemployable as a result of disability. The veteran must have been rated that way for at least 8 continuous years immediately preceding death AND the surviving spouse had to be married to the veteran for those same 8 years."
In other words, if the survivor is eligible for DIC based on death by a service connected condition and at the time of death the veteran was rated as 100% schedular or 100% TDIU and was rated as P & T, there is an additional $288.27 added to the benefit.
If I'm interpreting your message correctly you and he believe he will likely die from the service connected prostate cancer. That would establish your eligibility to the DIC benefit because he is service connected. His 100% rating started in November 2014 and that is known as the effective date of the rating and is the start date of the 8 year rule.
Thanks to you both for taking estate planning in stride and getting it done right. I have had fewer heartbreaking tasks than to try and help a widow when the veteran wouldn't talk about VA for whatever reasons. Death and taxes, as they say, should compel everyone to plan for our inevitable demise.
Give him my best and a salute from me, please.