VA Disability Pension

Veteran’s disability benefits go back to pre-Revolutionary War. In 1636, Plymouth Colony ordered that any disabled soldier wounded while defending the colony would be maintained by the Colony for life. Other colonies followed this lead. In 1776, the Continental Congress established disability pensions (now called disability compensation) for veterans who became disabled during military service. In 1789, the first federal pension law was passed giving responsibility to the Congress to pay veterans benefits. This pension legislation continued the pension law passed by the Continental Congress.

In 1818, the Service Pension Law was introduced to provide pension benefits to veterans who have served in war on the basis of need. Under this law, veterans who had served in the War for Independence and who were financially needy were eligible to receive a fixed pension for life. In 1862, the General Pension Act allowed disability payments to union troops to be based on rank and degree of disability.

In 1873, the Consolidation Act revised pension policies, paying on the degree of disability rather than the service rank. The Dependant Pension Act of 1890 expanded benefits to eligible dependants under certain conditions.

The U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) uses a rating schedule to evaluate the degree of disability. The schedule was created in 1919 and it has provided the foundation for the current VA compensation and pension programs for disabled veterans. In 1945, the VA rating schedule underwent major changes allowing the VA to reevaluate a veteran and change the disability rating. In 1978, the current version of the nonservice-connected pension, the Improved Disability Pension Benefit, became effective.

The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) administers the disability pension benefits to low-income wartime veterans with a non-service connected disability.

The VA Disability Pension program is federally funded.

Disability pension is a monthly cash benefit paid to qualified veterans and their dependents, who have a non-service-connected disability and limited income.

To qualify for VA disability pension benefits a veteran must be discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, have military service during a wartime period, have income below specified income limits, have a net worth that does not provide adequate maintenance, and be permanently and totally disabled at the time of the application, if under age 65. Veterans who are 65 or older do not have to be disabled to qualify for pension benefits.

Veterans file an application for the disability pension at a VA regional office either in person or via the Internet. A veteran who disagrees with a VA regional office’s decision regarding his/her eligibility for benefits can file an appeal.

Note: The Department of Veterans Affairs administers several pension benefit programs for veterans, as well as their surviving spouses and dependent children. The most current pension programs available (for those meeting the eligibility criteria on or after January 1, 1979) are the Improved Disability Pension for certain low-income veterans and the Improved Death Pension for certain low-income surviving spouses or children of veterans. This chapter describes these programs, including the eligibility criteria and current benefit levels. It does not include programs prior to January 1, 1979: the Old Law Death Pension and the Section 306 Death Pension.