"Welcome Home" from Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland will help vets from Iraq and Afghanistan navigate the VA system.

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Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.  If you would like to contact Jim about his columns, you can email him here...  The archive of Jim's articles is here...  To find an answer to a specific VA benefits question, use the VA Watchdog search engine... click here...  And, be sure to use Jim's:  A Military Veterans Guide To Disability Compensation and Pension Benefits -- A Compendium of Resources and Knowledge For The Disabled Veteran -- click here...   JIm's series for new vets, "Welcome Home," is also featured on Military.com. And, you can follow Jim on TWITTER here ...

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Welcome Home! #4 -- Three Cash-Based Benefits

by Jim Strickland

As you're learning about your Veterans Administration benefits and transitioning from active duty soldier, sailor, marine or airman, you must be able to recognize that out of dozens of ancillary benefits there are three that are very important and of concern to you right now, today.

Compensation, Pension and DIC

Within the Veterans Benefits Administration (the VA) is found the Compensation and Pension services ("C&P") section. When a veteran believes that an injury or illness (known as a "condition" by the VA) that was incurred during active duty military service (or if preexisting was aggravated by the service) has become disabling, the veteran may apply for a disability compensation benefit. In some situations, the veteran may also be eligible for a pension benefit. Compensation and Pension are entirely different benefits and have different eligibility requirements.

Compensation is by far the most common benefit applied for by veterans with 2.9 million recipients in 2008. Compensation is not based on financial need; it is based solely on the degree of disability. There are three fundamental requirements for a veteran to be eligible for a compensation benefit: (1) evidence of a current medical condition or disability; (2) evidence of an in-service occurrence; and (3) evidence of a connection between the condition and the in-service occurrence (also known as a "nexus").

Most delays, disputes and appeals to higher and then higher yet authorities are centered on the validity of a claim for disability benefits. And most of the validity disputes involve questions regarding evidence of a connection between the current condition and the in-service incident.

Veterans should note that each of the three requirements require "evidence." So right from the start, a veteran filing a claim for VA benefits must start thinking about legal issues and legal standards referred to as "evidentiary requirements".

Pension, in contrast to Compensation, is a needs based system. This means that there are restrictions on a veteran's annual income and savings that limit the amount of pension which a veteran can receive.

The basic requirements for a VA pension are: (1) total and permanent disability; (2) military service during a "time of war;" and (3) income below specified limits. Unlike Compensation, the disability cited for pension purposes does not need to be service connected. Pension, however, is subject to a dollar-for-dollar setoff against income. Approximately 317,000 veterans were receiving pensions in 2008.

One other VA benefit is important to a large number of veterans, or more specifically, surviving spouses, and in some cases, children or parents, of deceased veterans. Death and Indemnity Compensation (more commonly referred to as "DIC") is a benefit for surviving spouses of veterans whose death was the result of a service-connected condition.

DIC is a separate benefit from the veteran's own benefit (a veteran's benefits are said to "die with the vet") and the survivor must file his or her own claim. Sadly, many survivors do not learn about DIC until long after they are eligible, if ever. If a DIC claim is not filed within one year of the veteran's death, payments before the date of the claim are lost. All veterans should know about DIC and make sure that their spouses do too.

You're a veteran now and that means the way you're thinking about your future must undergo a major shift. You have a generous array of outstanding benefits laid out in front of you that will assist you to provide for yourself and your family. It'll work best when you devote some serious time to learning about your benefits and completing the processes necessary for each one.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Jim Strickland, Veterans' Advocate, Welcome Home, Iraq veteran, Afghanistan veteran