The Department of Veterans Affairs offers many types of benefits to disabled veterans and their families.
Besides offering free medical care for any injury or illness related to a veteran's military service, the federal agency offers some disabled veterans and their families monthly compensation payments for certain types and levels of disability
Disability Compensation
Disability Compensation is a tax free monetary benefit paid to veterans with disabilities that are the result of a injury or disease cause by or made worse during active military service.
Generally, VA disability payments are designed to compensate veterans for loss of working time and income from their illness or injuries. Payments are based on the severity of a veteran's illness or injury. Therefore, a veteran who has a knee injury as a result of their service would receive a lower monthly payment than a veteran who is missing both of their legs as a result of injuries sustained while on active duty.
Veterans who have service-connected injuries or illnesses are eligible to receive free medical care from the VA for those conditions. Some veterans who have very severe or multiple health conditions related to their military service may receive all of their medical care for free from the VA.
By law, the VA must place all veterans seeking medical care into what are known as "priority groups" that determine what care the veteran may receive from the VA. This ensures that veterans with the severest injuries receive VA treatment first. Priority groups also allow veterans with limited financial resources to get their health care treatment from the VA in many circumstances.
See our Veteran Disability Compensation page for more details.
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC)
DIC is a tax free monetary benefit payable to surviving spouses, children, or parents of servicemembers who died on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training or survivors of veterans who died from their service-connected disabilities.
DIC for parents is an income-based benefit.
See our Dependency and Indemnity Compensation page for more details.
Special Monthly Compensation (SMC)
SMC is an additional tax-free benefit that can be paid to veterans, their spouses, surviving spouses and parents.
For veterans, Special Monthly Compensation is a higher rate of compensation paid due to special circumstances such as the need of aid and attendance by another person or a specific disability, such as loss of use of one hand or leg.
For spouses and surviving spouses, this benefit is commonly referred to as aid and attendance and is paid based on the need of aid and attendance by another person.
See our Special Monthly Compensation page for more details.
Other Benefits
VA provides additional housing and insurance benefits to Veterans with disabilities, including Adapted Housing grants, and Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection.
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