How To Add Dependant To Va Disability

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The Support our Veterans license plate is available for purchase for a one-time fee of $25 at all Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicle locations. Proceeds support the Military Family Assistance Fund. Other specialty license plates are also available, including the Purple Heart license plate and the Military Honors license plate for disabled veterans.

Request For Approval Of School Attendance

• Part I. In this section, veterans must include the following personal identifying information: full name, email address, and VA file number.; From there, veterans must include the following information about the college-aged dependent: full name, social security number, date of birth, name/address of school for which approval is requested, name of type of course of education or training, and the expected start and graduation dates.; Veterans must also indicate whether the student will be attending school full time.; If not, they must indicate the subject for which the student is enrolled and the number of sessions/hours per week of class or training for it.
• Part II. Section II involves questions regarding the college-aged dependents income and net worth.; Specifically, the veteran must include a report of the students income by calendar year categorized by the source of the income ; how much money was received; and how much money is expected to be received the following year.; Veterans must also indicate the value of the students estate, broken down into savings , securities/bonds, real estate, all other assets, and the total of all of those combined.
• Part III. Here, the veteran must sign to indicate that the information provided is accurate.; By signing, the veteran is also agreeing to notify VA immediately of any changes in the course of the college-aged dependents education, including transferring to another school, discontinuing school, etc.

How Do I Add Eligible Dependents To My Monthly Va Benefits

VA has a different form to add each type of dependent to your benefit rate. If the below dependent form are submitted within one year of your 30% disability grant, the effective date of your benefit increase will be that of your original grant of benefits. See forms below:

• To add a child under the age of 18 or a spouse to your benefit rate, VA Form 21-686c: Declaration of Status of Dependents must be completed and submitted to the VA.
• If you would like to add a child attending school full-time between the ages of 18 and 23, VA Form 21-674: Request for Approval of School Attendance must be filled out and submitted to VA when necessary.
• When adding eligible parents to your VA disability benefit rate, VA Form 21P-509: Statement of Dependency of Parent;should be completed and turned into the VA.

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When most people think of Social Security, they think of retirement benefits with good reason. But we are more than retirement benefits; we offer many online tools to help you plan for your future.

Use Social Securitys to see what your benefits could be based on when you retire and if your income changes.

Questions About Adding Or Removing Certain Kinds Of Dependents

If you and your spouse are both Veterans with a combined disability rating of at least 30%, you can both receive additional disability compensation for each other and for your children.

You should know: Itll take us longer to process your claim if your spouse is also a Veteran. But if you file your claim online, and we decide youre eligible for additional disability compensation for your dependent, well pay you back to the date you started the online claim process.

You can submit a request through eBenefits asking us to stop paying additional disability compensation for a spouse or child. Well need more time to process a request that involves a child than a request that involves a spouse, but the online process is still much faster than submitting a paper request.

If you get divorced, youll want to notify us right away. You dont need to send or upload supporting documents to eBenefits in this case.

This will help to make sure we dont continue paying you additional disability compensation for your former spouse and, if applicable, stepchildren after the divorce. If we continue paying you benefits that youre not eligible for, we may withhold money from future payments until youve paid us back.

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How Much Am I Entitled To

Your monthly entitlement depends on your combined disability rating, service-connected conditions, and number and type of eligible dependents.

For example, a veteran with a 30% combined disability rating and no dependents is entitled to $476.35 per month. However, if that same veteran is married with one child, they would be entitled to $574.35 per month.

To confirm what your monthly entitlement should be, we encourage you review the Veterans Compensation Benefits Rate Tables on the VAs website.

If you have questions on adding eligible dependents to your award, contact our Veterans Services team.

Parents and spouses in common-law marriages cannot be added to your benefits online through eBenefits. To add a parent as a dependent, use VA Form 21-509, Statement of Dependency of Parents. To add a spouse from a common-law marriage, submit VA Form 21-686c, Declaration of Status of Dependents.

How To Remove A Dependent Using Paper Forms

At the time of this writing, the VA official site page on dependency claims does not include instructions for changing status using paper forms. You may be able to accomplish the status change by calling the VA directly at 1-800-827-1000.

One reason the VA may not require you to use a paper form is that removing a dependent is much easier than adding one. There are no requirements for further development of a claim where a dependent is being removed than to inform the Department of Veterans Affairs.

According to the VA official site, If you get divorced, youll want to notify us right away. You dont need to send or upload supporting documents to eBenefits in this case.

Removing a dependent child is more complex and may require the use of the same VA form you used to submit the original claim, VA Form 21-686c Declaration of Status of Dependents. Call the VA directly at the number given above to get assistance with filling out this form or contact a VSO to help you.

Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter for Air Force Television News

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What To Do If You Need To Remove A Dependent Instead Of Adding One

There are many reasons why you may need to remove a dependent from your VA claim rather than add one to it. Divorce, a death in the family, or other circumstances may led to this. The fastest way to do so is by using the VA eBenefits portal .

The VA official site reminds users that it takes longer to process a claim to remove a dependent child than it would for a dependent spouse. But the process is considerably slower using a paper form.

Those who experience a divorce should submit claims to remove the spouse as soon as possible. If the VA makes a determination that a veteran continued to be paid for a spouse or dependent child that should be removed, the VA will require those funds be repaid to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Those who have qualifying dependent children added to their benefits do not need to worry about submitting a claim to remove a dependent who has an upcoming birthday that will make them ineligible for future VA claims payments.

The VA official site says the agency will track the claim based on the childs date of birth. When the child turns 18, they will be automatically removed unless they are attending school full time or otherwise continue to meet VA criteria for keeping them added to your claim.

How To Determine Your Disability Compensation

To determine your disability compensation, you need to file a claim with VA. The VA rates your disability by severity after reviewing every piece of evidence in your claim.

You may only receive compensation for a single diagnostic code per condition, even if that condition satisfies more than one diagnostic code. However, those with more than one condition may receive additional compensation based on the combined rating system.

You may receive additional compensation if:

• You have very severe disabilities or loss of limb
• you have a spouse, children, or dependent parents
• you have a seriously disabled spouse

Note: If you have more than one child or your spouse receives Aid and Attendance benefits , be sure to include the figures from the “Add” row.

Did you know: Veterans can use their disability income in conjunction with their VA loan benefits. Speak with a home loan specialist to see how much you can afford.

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Adding Children Under The Age Of 18 To Your Va Benefits

Section I Veteran/Claimant Identification Information

Again, this section requires veterans to fill out basic identifying information.; It will be completed in the same way as described above.; Veterans must also attach supporting documentation when claiming a child under 18 as a dependent for VA benefits.; Specifically, they must provide copies of the childs birth certificate and social security card.

Section III Information Needed to Add Children

This section provides space to add up to four dependent children under the age of 18 to your VA benefits.; If claiming more than four children, veterans can fill out an addendum, found on the last page of VA Form 21-686c, and submit it along with the rest of the application.; Here, veterans will provide the following information about the child being added as a dependent:

• Full name

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Additional Va Dependent Benefits

There are some additional benefits available to some survivors of disabled veterans. See our Survivor and Dependents page for an overview.

We strongly recommend that you enlist the services of a Veteran Service Officer before you submit your application for any of the above benefits. They will review your application, helping ensure it has all the information the VA requires. If you do not have a VSO yet, the NVF will help you find one. Simply call us at 888-777-4443 for information or to ask us more about VA Dependent Benefits.

Who The Va Considers To Be A Dependent For This Process

Dependent status for this application process is considered to be one of the following:

• A spouse you are legally married to
• The spouse in a common-law marriage
• Children who are unmarried and either under the age of 18, attending school full-time between the ages of 18 and 23, or children who were seriously disabled prior to their 18th birthday
• Parents in your direct care that meet certain need-based requirements.

Some outdated online resources may claim that same-sex couples or common-law couples are not eligible, but this is not true according to documents retrieved from the VA official site.

There is a very important caveat here. Veterans are permitted to add parents and common-law spouses. But they are NOT permitted to use the VA eBenefits portal to do so and must submit paper forms. In such cases it may be wise to consider using a Veteran Service Organization to assist you in filing your claim.

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Can I File A Claim For Dependent Benefits By Mail

Yes, absolutely. While the VA strongly encourages veterans to apply online, simply because of ease of use and the streamlined response time, you can submit paper forms to add dependents to your VA disability benefits.

To add a child or spouse, you can mail in VA Form 21-686c, Declaration of Status of Dependents. To add a full-time student dependent, age 18-23, you should submit VA Form 21-674: Request for Approval of School Attendance in addition to VA Form 21-686c, Declaration of Status of Dependents. To add dependent parents, the VA requires you to submit VA Form 21P-509, Statement of Dependency of Parent. All forms can be mailed to the VAs claims processing center for review.

Who Qualifies For The Va Dependent Pay

A veteran can receive VA dependent pay based on the number of people who depend financially on the veteran including parents. The VA includes biological parents, stepparents, and adoptive parents in the definition of parents. The VA also recognizes foster parents or other relatives who acted as the veterans parents for at least one year prior to the start of the veterans active duty.

The VA has three categories that define who qualifies as a VA dependent:

• Spouse: Anyone with whom you have a marital relationship including a same-sex spouse or a common-law spouse.
• Children: Unmarried children who are under 18, between 18 and 23 and attending school full time, or over 18 and disabled. The VA includes stepchildren and adopted children.
• Parents: Parents who are dependent on you for care and fall under predefined income and net worth thresholds.

You can download a detailed list of dependent qualifications from VA.gov here.

Dependent Parent factsheet

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Yellow Ribbon Gi Bill Education Enhancement Program

May assist eligible individuals with payment of their tuition and fees in instances where costs exceed the in-state tuition charges at a public institution or the national maximum payable at private and foreign institutions. Eligibility requirements apply.

How Do You Add Dependents To Va Disability

As I mentioned above, the best way;to add dependents to VA Disability Claims is to do so with your original claim. ;When you submit VA Form 21-526, or fill out a claims form online, be sure to include the correct information.

The VA is required to accept your statement as to marriage, birth, divorce, etc, so long as your;;statement includes:

• the date and place of the event;
• the full name and relationship of the other person to the claimant;
• and, where the claimants dependent child does not reside with the claimant, the name and address of the person who has custody of the child.
• In addition, a claimant must provide the social security number of any dependent on whose behalf he or she is seeking benefits.

Another way to add dependents to VA Disability claims is to hop on eBenefits and add your dependent.

I STRONGLY recommend keeping copies of everything you send to the VA via eBenefits, and if the VA doesnt acknowledge receipt of it in 2 weeks, send paper in the mail to the Evidence Intake Center.

I dont yet trust eBenefits.

Not only because my own claim shows a BVA Hearing was held before I ever filed the claim, but also because I have heard and seen countless stories of Veterans submitting claims or evidence via eBenefits and having it vaporize disappear into the cloud.

So if you do use eBenefits and that is your choice entirely keep backup copies of everything!

Why?

And knowthe million dollar question: ;

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Va Disability Pay Rates For Veterans With Dependent Children

In our last article, we covered the basics of VA disability pay rates and what the corresponding monthly benefit amount is for each disability level. ;In this article, we want to cover how those rates change if you are a veteran with dependent children. ;We will also define for you who qualifies as a dependent child so you are sure to claim all eligible dependents.

To recap the basics, keep in mind that what we are talking about here is VA disability compensation. ;That is a tax-free, monthly benefit paid on account of service connected disabilities. ;It is not income based.

Also, the type of disability you have does not dictate your VA disability pay rates. ;So, a veteran with heart disease at 30% would receive the same amount each month as a veteran with a 30% rating for PTSD .

Who Qualifies as a Dependent Child for Higher VA Disability Pay Rates?

A child must be a dependent child within VAs definition for you to receive a higher VA disability pay rate on account of that child. A child must be a dependent child within VAs definition for you to receive a higher VA disability pay rate on account of that child. ;The child must be a biological child, adopted child, or stepchild in the;veterans household. ;This can be established by birth certificate, adoption papers, or marriage certificate showing you are married to the childs biological/adoptive parent.

How Much Do;VA Disability Pay Rates Increase on Account of Dependent Children?

Is There a Cap on;VA Disability Pay Rates?