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Survivor DIC rates
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation is a monthly payment to the surviving spouse and children of a veteran. It starts from one rate and adds amounts for children, for the 8-year provision and for a spouse who needs care. This adds them up from VA's published rates and names the law behind each one.
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Result
Monthly DIC
$1,699.36
$20,392.32 a year
| Basic monthly rate38 U.S.C. 1311(a)(1) | $1,699.36 |
|---|
How this is worked
Every amount is from the VA's DIC rates for spouses and dependents, effective December 1, 2025. VA raises them every December 1 by the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment.
A surviving spouse is paid the basic rate of $1,699.36 under 38 U.S.C. 1311. The 8-year provision adds $360.85 when the veteran was rated totally disabled, individual unemployability included, for at least 8 continuous years before death and the spouse was married to the veteran throughout them, as 38 CFR 3.10 sets out. Each child under 18 adds $421.00, aid and attendance adds $421.00, and being housebound adds $197.22 when aid and attendance is not paid. A spouse with a child under 18 also gets a transitional benefit of $359.00, whatever the number of children, for the first 2 years of DIC; it stops sooner when the last child turns 18.
When the veteran died before January 1, 1993, VA pays the rate set for the veteran's pay grade instead, but only when it is more than the basic rate with any 8-year amount, and never with the 8-year amount added to it (38 CFR 3.10(d)). VA's rate page says to add the 8-year amount to an E-7's rate and to raise higher grades to $2,060.20; the regulation gives $2,060.21 in both cases, which is the figure VA's own example on that page uses, so this follows the regulation.
A child 18 to 23 in an approved school program is paid $356.66, and a child who became permanently unable to support themselves before 18 is paid $717.50, in their own right beside the spouse, under 38 U.S.C. 1314.
With no surviving spouse entitled to DIC, the children share one award equally under 38 U.S.C. 1313: $717.50 for one child, $1,032.18 for two, $1,346.92 for three, and $255.95 more for each child after that. Each child disabled before 18 gets $421.00 on top of their share.
This does not work out whether a death qualifies for DIC, or the income-based DIC paid to a veteran's parents, which has tables of its own. A survivor eligible for both DIC and Survivors Pension is paid whichever is more, and since January 1, 2023 the Survivor Benefit Plan annuity is paid in full alongside DIC.
An estimate for reference, not a VA decision. VA's award letter is the record of what it pays.