VA Benefits for Terminally Ill Veterans & Survivors: Hospice, Expedited Claims, DIC, and A&A (2025 Guide)
CCK Law: Our Vital Role in Veterans Law
When a veteran is facing terminal illness, they deserve to spend their time with loved ones, rather than worrying about sources of care or finances for their families. In this article, you will learn about the available VA benefits for terminally ill veterans, as well as additional benefits intended to support their survivors and dependents after the veteran has passed.
Key points of this article include:
- Service connection is not required for several VA benefits for terminally ill veterans. Free hospice care and discounted palliative care are available for qualifying veterans, regardless of whether their illness is service connected.
- If a veteran passes while their VA disability claim is pending, it is possible for their spouse to step in as a substitute recipient. If the veteran’s claim is later approved, their spouse can retroactively be awarded any compensation that the veteran would have received prior to their death.
- Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) is one of the most important VA benefits for terminally ill veterans. DIC is monthly compensation paid to the dependents or survivors of a deceased veteran, should the veteran’s death somehow be connected to their military service.
Terminal Illness Among Veterans
A terminal illness is any illness that is incurable and likely to result in death. Typically, terminal diseases are progressive (i.e., the disease worsens or spreads over time), cause irreversible damage to the body and organs, have little hope of treatment, and substantially limit life expectancy.
Some examples of terminal illnesses that veterans suffer from include:
- Advanced stages of cancer
- Neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
- HIV/AIDS
- Cardiovascular diseases like congestive heart failure or coronary artery disease
- End-stage liver disease
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Notably, several of these terminal conditions can be linked to toxic exposures that veterans may suffer from over the course of their service. For instance, COPD is a presumptive condition commonly linked to burn pit exposure, while some studies show that Parkinson’s disease can frequently develop after contact with Agent Orange.
Does a Terminal Illness Require Service Connection to Grant Benefits?
Not always.
While some VA benefits—like monthly disability compensation—require service connection or presumption in order to be granted, this is not the case with other benefits meant for terminally ill veterans.
For instance, if a veteran needs palliative care, hospice care, or a VA claim to be expedited, their illness does not necessarily have to be service connected in order for them to earn the benefit. However, they may have to meet other eligibility requirements.
VA Programs for Terminally Ill Veterans and End-of-Life Care
VA offers several programs and processes to support veterans facing a terminal illness.
Expedited Claims for Terminally Ill Veterans
Expedited disability claims are those that VA has marked as priority to be processed as fast as possible. As Claire Babcock, a VA-accredited claims agent with CCK Law, explains:
“VA allows veterans to have their cases expedited before the regional office and the Board of Veterans Appeals in certain situations. One way to qualify for expedited status is a terminal or serious illness. You can prove a terminal illness with a treatment note, a medical opinion, or a note from a treating physician to show that your diagnosis is terminal.”
Palliative Care for Terminally Ill Veterans
Palliative care is medical care intended to help provide relief and improve quality of life for veterans contending with a serious or terminal illness. Some perks of this kind of care include symptom management, care coordination from a medical team, therapy sessions to provide emotional support, and more.
Typically, this care can begin as soon as the veteran is diagnosed and is distinct from hospice care in that curative treatments may still be pursued over its course.
Palliative care is available to qualifying veterans who have access to VA medical benefits if they meet the clinical need for the service.
Copays may be charged.
Hospice Care for Terminally Ill Veterans
Hospice is one of the VA benefits for end-of-life care. This specialized form of medical care is provided to veterans with less than six months to live due to their terminal illness. Hospice care focuses on relieving pain, offering comfort and emotional support, and honoring a veteran’s wishes as they approach the final months of their life.
Hospice care is available to all qualifying veterans with VA medical benefits. It requires no copays and does not require that the veteran’s terminal illness be service connected. Importantly, hospice care can also be provided wherever is most comfortable for the veteran, including at their residence or within a nursing home.
Aid & Attendance Benefits
Aid & Attendance (A&A) is a VA medical benefit available to qualifying veterans either as an enhanced portion of their VA Pension, or as part of their Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) benefit. Alyse Phillips, Supervising Attorney at CCK Law, explains what A&A entails:
“Aid & Attendance is a medical circumstance that veterans face when they require regular care of another person in order to carry out the activities of daily living. A&A benefits are paid to veterans, their dependents, or survivors. This benefit is intended for veterans who require assistance or the supervision of another person for activities including bathing, preparing meals, using the restroom, or adjusting a prosthetic.”
Notably, while a veteran can receive A&A benefits either because of their Enhanced VA Pension or their SMC, they cannot receive both at the same time and must choose either the pension or SMC benefits.
Housebound Benefits
VA housebound benefits are another form of SMC under the statute 38 USC § 1114(s), commonly referred to as SMC(s). This benefit is for veterans with service-connected disabilities severe enough to prevent them from leaving their home, requiring confinement to their residence.
Eligibility requires having at least one 100 percent service-connected disability and a second, unrelated service-connected disability rated at 60 percent or more, or the inability to leave home because of a disability.
Advance Care Planning
Advance care planning is another of the VA benefits for end-of-life care. This benefit allows veterans with serious or terminal illnesses to make their healthcare wishes known in advance to family members, caregivers, and doctors. This is done to account for the possibility that the veteran loses the ability to communicate or make decisions for themselves as their illness progresses.
As part of this benefit, VA offers veterans an advance directive, or AD. The AD is a legal form that allows veterans to appoint a Health Care Agent to wield the power of attorney and make medical decisions on the veteran’s behalf. It also provides sections for creating a Living Will and specifying which treatment options the veteran does and does not desire (e.g., breathing machines or feeding tubes).
VA Benefits for Survivors and Dependents of Terminally Ill Veterans
If a veteran is worried about their family’s finances in the face of a serious illness, they should know that there are options available for ensuring their family is compensated by VA even should the worst happen, and the veteran passes away.
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) for Family of Veterans
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) is a monthly financial benefit offered by VA to eligible survivors of a veteran—typically a spouse, child, or in some cases, a dependent parent—whose death was connected to their military service.
To be eligible for DIC benefits, the veteran must meet at least one of several specific service-related conditions:
- The veteran passed away while on active duty, active duty training, or inactive duty training;
- The veteran passed away due to a service-connected condition; or
- If the veteran’s death was not service-related, but they received disability compensation for a service-connected condition considered totally disabling:
- For a period of at least 10 years prior to death; or
- Since separation from active duty and for a period of at least five years prior to death; or
- For at least one year prior to death if they were a former prisoner of war who died after September 30, 1999.
Importantly, VA does not pay survivors the same monthly benefit amount the veteran was receiving before passing. Instead, DIC is distributed using its own payment rates, which are adjusted annually to reflect changes in the cost of living (COLA).
As of 2025, the standard monthly DIC payment is $1,653.07 for surviving spouses or children of eligible veterans. Surviving parents may also receive DIC, though the amount varies depending on their income and whether they live alone or with others.
In some cases, survivors may be entitled to additional compensation if they meet certain eligibility criteria.
VA Survivors Pension for Family of Veterans
VA Survivors Pension is a monthly financial benefit available to the surviving spouses and unmarried dependent children of wartime veterans, provided they meet income limits established by Congress.
Surviving spouses who have not remarried after the veteran’s passing may be eligible for this pension, so long as the deceased veteran satisfies the following VA service criteria:
- For service on or before September 7, 1980, the veteran must have served at least 90 days of active military service, with at least one day during a wartime period (see below).
- For active duty after September 7, 1980, the veteran must have served at least 24 months or the full period for which they were called or ordered to active duty, with at least one day during a wartime period.
- The veteran was not dishonorably discharged.
To qualify as a dependent child, the applicant must be unmarried and either under the age of 18, under 23 and enrolled in a VA-approved educational program, or permanently unable to support themselves due to a disability that began before turning 18.
To be eligible for the VA Survivors Pension, surviving family members must fall below a financial threshold established by Congress. This means their total annual income and assets must be under a specific limit. The amount they receive is calculated by subtracting their countable income and assets from VA’s annual pension limit.
For 2024-2025, VA’s net worth annual pension limit is $159,240.
VA Accrued Benefits for Family of Veterans
If a veteran passes away while their VA claim is still under review, the surviving spouse can step in as a substitute claimant to continue the process. Should VA later approve service connection or grant a higher disability rating, the surviving spouse may be entitled to accrued benefits—essentially, the retroactive payments the veteran would have received had they not passed—covering the period up until the date of death.
- 38 U.S.C. § 5121A permits an eligible accrued-benefits payee to substitute on a pending claim.
- VA also publishes a factsheet and M21-1 guidance on substitution.
Additional VA Survivor Benefits
Besides direct financial compensation, there are several other benefits for survivors that they can receive upon the veteran’s passing. Some of these include:
- The Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) Program – designed to help dependents of veterans pay for university education, vocational training, and more.
- CHAMPVA Insurance – which provides health coverage to the dependents or survivors of veterans.
- VA-backed home loan benefits
- Funeral and burial allowance
- And more
Need Help? Call CCK Law
If you are a veteran or the loved one of a veteran who is facing a terminal illness, the last thing you want to worry about is finances. But by partnering with CCK Law, you gain access to experienced VA-accredited lawyers who have helped more than 30,000 veterans and dependents secure increased disability ratings, DIC, and more from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Call CCK Law at (800) 544-9144 or contact us online for a free case evaluation.
