DIC Benefits

• The VA offers Dependency and Indemnity Compensation to spouses of veterans who died due to a service-related injury or disease. If the death has no relation to military service, you may still qualify for DIC if your spouse was entitled to receive benefits for a service-related total disability. In that case, your spouse must have been entitled to the total disability benefit for either 10 years; for one year before death if he had been a POW; or for at least five years immediately following his discharge.
  
  

Spouses

• If you married your veteran before 1957; within 15 years of her discharge; or if you were married for one year, had a child with the veteran and haven't remarried, you qualify for DIC. As of 2011, the monthly DIC payment is $1,154, tax-free; the amount goes up if you have dependent children or if you're confined to your house by health. The VA adjusts the rates over time, and makes rate tables available online.
  
  

Applying

• The VA states that 21-534a form for applying for DIC requires special handling. The usual approach is for you to contact a VA Casualty Officer and ask him to submit the application. It will have to be faxed to the VA along with a Report of Casualty on form 1300. If for some reason you have to submit the form yourself, the VA provides downloadable forms and the fax number on its website.
  
  

Other Programs

• As a veteran's surviving spouse, you're entitled to several other benefits if she died of a service-related disability. You can apply for up to 45 months of educational assistance; a VA guaranteed home loan from a private lender; and vocational counseling from the VA. If your spouse paid for extra benefits under the GI Bill or the Veterans Educational Assistance Program, the VA may refund some of the money to you.