Veteran's Comp and SSDI? Entitlement After Death?

[Buck52]

 I am not sure how to ask this / another Veteran ask me this at my VAMC Thursday? not to sound morbid  or ugly  but

a  married couple of 35 years Veteran 100% over 10 years and is married for 35 years Veteran wife gets part of Veterans comp and Also disabled and getting SSDI.

ok

Can a spouse (the Veteran) if his spouse dies and getting part of the Veteran Comp   the  3 % or whatever it is ?

and his spouse is on SSDI and she passes away,  is the Veteran still entitled to her SSDI and part of the VA She gets while living ?

or is her part of the VA Comp taken away? and what about the SSDI she was getting from being disabled?  From SSA .

Question? do both of these benefits the wife had Stop? or is the Veteran still entitled to them?

I told the Veteran it all stopped but not sure because depends on how long hubby was getting benefits and what he was rated  & for how long and I was not sure about the SSDI Part?

I know that when a spouse dies the other spouse is entitled to half of the benefits from SSA  IF Divorce ,if still married at the time of death then the other spouse gets the full entitlement...but I am not sure on this at All ?

Anyone Know? 

[Gastone]

See if this helps. A Vet and/or his wife both receive  SSDI Awards.This Award pays the same as Full Boat SS amount as if the person waited to collect their actual Retirement age SS Comp Benefit. When the person receiving SSDI reaches their respective Retirement age, SSDI changes to regular SS Comp, no longer is it considered an SSDI Award.

The surviving Spouse must decide to continue to pull their own SS Comp Amount or switch to the Spouses if it was higher. Not a difficult choice.  By now we all know how bad the DIC Comp is for the non Vet Spouse. To go from 100% Comp to $1200 to $1500 per month is quite a shock. Certainly worth discussion and some sort of plan being put in place.

[Carl the Engineer]

SSI from what I a have witnessed from my parents.  Dad got full, mom was a stay at home mom, got half what dad got.  Dad passed, mom got what dad got and not the half she got before.  I other words, Dad got 1000.00 at age 62, and mom got half that 500.00 at age 62.  Dad passed, mom got dads 1000.00 and that was all.  So their "household" income went from 1500.00 to 1000.00 after dad passed.

Now, here is one that is not very well known.  If you are previously divorced an have an ex-spouse, that you were married to for more than 10 years, but dies before you reach age 60, you can get his or her SSI benefit from your age 60 to age 62.  The catch is SS will not motify you and you can't go back and get it, i.e., no retro.  My neighbor found out when he went in to start his SSI 6 months prior to turning 62.  They told him that he could have gotten her SSI for the last year and a half.  He did get her SSI for the 5 months before starting his own at age 62.  Another one of those little tidbits they don't tell anyone about.

Hamslice

 

[Berta]

 

"a  married couple of 35 years Veteran 100% over 10 years and is married for 35 years Veteran wife gets part of Veterans comp and Also disabled and getting SSDI."

Wives don't get "part of"  a veteran's comp, that is called the dependency allowance.

Gold Star  Wives (I am a GSW and they also have husband as members too) fights aggressively every year for higher DIC and to eliminate the DIC- retiree  widow's benefit offset.

 

 

 

 

[Buck52]

Thanks Gastone ,Hamslice & Ms berta I heard about what Ham has mention about the half part.

but now on the dependent allowance from her S.C. Disabled veteran that is 100% and been over 10 years    if she dies before the Veteran  the VA Will take away the dependent part  because she is no longer a dependent  correct? and only half of her SSDI  1000/-500=500 is this the only loss the veteran will get (financially) per-say.

but with SSDI the Veteran will get to keep her part  but not in full only half  because she is over age 62?

  This is confusing  and Veterans really need to know what happens when their spouse dies before him & Also the Veterans spouse needs to know what happens (financially ) to her...some spouse will get the allocated DIC  which is around 1300 month .

what happens to the Veteran spouse if her Hubby dies first and can't make the mortgage payment? with DIC? 

is there any help the spouse can get from the VA?  This is what the Veteran is asking me...I see him again on the 20th of this month  we have appointments at the same time

Most mortgage payments is usually around 1000,per month up to 1500 month depending on the home price. 1300 monthly from DIC for a spouse will not be enough to live on.

Ms berta something needs to be done about the offset for veterans widows 

Does GSW get the same as a non GSW?

btw

Has anyone heard from Flip Helig?   aka Phillip Rogers? he knows a lot about SSA spousal payments.

 

Edited February 11, 2018 by Buck52

[Berta]

The last time I tried to contact Flip  some years ago -there was no response. He did get on line here once after that buy Flip (like many of us advocates) had become burned out from claims many times over the  20 plus years I knew him and had to take long breaks from it all.He had serious AO disabilities too.

The SSA and SSDI web sites have the full criteria and explanation of these benefits for disabled veterans and survivors.

"what happens to the Veteran spouse if her Hubby dies first and can't make the mortgage payment? with DIC?"

All they can do is wait for the VA decision.Hopefully the husband had either SC Disabled VA life insurance or some other form of life  insurance. In some  cases the VA awards a war time pension to survivors until their DIC claim is resolved. War time survivor pensions are income dependent. The VA will deduct the pension amount if they award it -from any retro DIC the survivor might get,with a successful DIC claim award.

The situation you posted:

"a  married couple of 35 years Veteran 100% over 10 years and is married for 35 years " means that type of DIC usually goes fairly  fast, or at least faster than other types of DIC claims.

Many DIC claims,however,  end up at the BVA.Some succeed, some get remands, and some have no evidence at all that could prompt an award.( or the spouse is not a legal spouse etc,..)

[Buck52]

Roger That Ms Berta

Flip helped me back in 2002/2003 until my claims was decided, a GOOD Man.

Thanks for this information I'll pass it along.

Edited February 12, 2018 by Buck52