Can A Wife Of A Vet File After His Death?

[sawgunner]

My uncle is a highly educated Veitnam vet who is in very bad shape with cancer. "prostate,colon, and now liver".

As smart as this man is, he is also terrifed of doctors and neddles and the VA.... He flat out refuses to go through the motions of filing a claim with VA.

With certian cancers being linked to service in Nam, can my aunt file a claim after his death?

[Pete53]

Yes. She has 1 year. It would be better if they filed now though.

[sharon]

It is one year for retro active benefits. There is no time limit to file for survivors benefits. There is a two year time limit to file for burial benefits if it is not service connected.

[Pete53]

Thanks Sharon

[broncovet]

I think you have been given good advice, however, VA has their "weasel clauses" and they are not "Santa clauses"!

Therefore, to protect your Aunt, if she has POA, then she should file her hubbies claim for him. If your uncle hasnt given her POA, then maybe Auntie can get hubbie to sign it..just push a POA form in front of him, and telling him that this gives his wife POA over possible VA benefits in the future, and wont hurt him. JMHO. Maybe he doesnt want benefits for himself, but he probably will be releived thinking "Auntie" is taken care of.

[Berta]

I dont think that would work.

If he can sign a POA form then why not have the spouse instead prepare the claim (I assume this would have to be done on initial 21-526 application for him and just have him sign the application.

I did all my husband's claim work for him.He dictated some of it and some of it was funny-nevertheless the claim was his,not mine and he signed the claims himself.

He had AL and the DAV on his POA.

If VA accepted a POA to a spouse (I dont think they would) this would make it illegal for any rep org POA to help wth the claim unless the original POA is rescinded.

I was involved in 2 very similiar situations.The vets didnt want to file a claim.

Unfortunately in both cases the spouse was not aware of the veteran's actual service information as their DD 214s revealed whch was much different from what the vet told the wife in both cases.

We had a wife here whose husband refused to file a claim-it seemed he had a very valid claim basis as to what she said here.

But if a vet doesnt want to file a claim even when they should- no one can make them do that.

[sharon]

The claim dies with the veteran. If a claim was already filed then you can file for accrued benefits. Otherwise, the only thing that is availabe is DIC or Pension for the widow. You can not open a new claim even if it is based on a persumptive condition on behave of the veteran.