The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced immediate actions to identify and pay surviving spouses who are eligible to receive a one-time compensation or pension payment for the month of the veteran's death.   

Brought to VA's attention by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, the VA's implementation of a 1997 law resulted in some surviving spouses not receiving the veteran's compensation or pension payment for the month of death.

In response, VA is aggressively changing its processing procedures to ensure this benefit is correctly paid to all surviving spouses in the future.  VA's disability payment system will also be enhanced to automate the month-of-death payment for all eligible surviving spouses.

VA will begin issuing retroactive payments to eligible surviving spouses at the end of this December 2008.  Payments will continue to be issued as additional unpaid beneficiaries are identified and VA is able to obtain current address information.  Surviving spouses most likely to be affected by this processing problem are those who never applied to VA for survivors' benefits following the death of a veteran.

"This benefit payment is long overdue to many of our beneficiaries," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.  "In these difficult economic times, it is imperative that we take aggressive action to fix this situation for the families of our veterans."

Because there are deceased veterans for whom VA does not have marital status information, a special Survivors' Call Center has been established for spouses who believe they may be entitled to this retroactive month-of-death benefit.

Surviving spouses are encouraged to contact the Survivors' Call Center at the toll-free telephone number, 1-800-749-8387.  Call center agents will assist surviving spouses in providing VA with the information needed to determine their eligibility.

The Call Center is open Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm central standard time.   Inquiries may also be submitted through the Internet.

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