Disability Compensation
Disability compensation is paid to Veterans with disabilities resulting from a disease or injury incurred during, aggravated by, or resulting from active duty service. Compensation may also be paid for post-service disabilities related to or secondary to disabilities that occurred in service. The Veteran must also have separated or been discharged from service under other than dishonorable conditions.
Disability compensation is paid monthly. The amount varies with the VA-assigned Combined Disability Rating and the number of dependents that the veteran has. Veterans with certain severe disabilities may be eligible for an additional Special Monthly Compensation (SMC). These benefits are not subject to federal or state income tax.
How the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) determines a Veteran’s Combined Disability Rating is often misunderstood. Higher individual rating categories are considered first, with subsequent individual disability ratings counted toward their effect on the non-disabled percentage.
For instance, a Veteran with a thirty percent and a twenty percent disability would not be fifty percent disabled but forty percent. The thirty percent disability leaves the veteran seventy percent able. Therefore, the 20 percent is applied against only that percent. Twenty percent of seventy percent is fourteen percent, which rounds to ten. For a more detailed explanation, please speak to a VSO at one of our Benefit Offices.
See Disability Compensation Rates Here
For assistance with your disability claim to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), find the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance Benefit Office closest to you.
VA Clothing Allowance
This benefit helps pay to replace clothing for Veterans whose orthopedic devices or skin medications cause damage to their clothing when the device or medication is linked to a service-connected condition or injury. The allowance rate changes year over year. Check the VA website or contact your local Benefits Office for the current rate.
Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) Grant
If you own or will own your home and have a qualifying service-connected disability, you may be approved for a Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) grant. This grant can provide up to $126,526 for FY 2026. This is the current total maximum amount allowed for SAH grants to buy, build, or change your permanent home to accommodate your disability.
Qualifying service-connected disabilities include:
- The loss, or loss of use, of more than one limb
- The loss, or loss of use, of a lower leg along with the residuals (lasting effects) of an organic (natural) disease or injury
- Blindness in both eyes (with 20/200 visual acuity or less)
- Certain severe burns
- The loss, or loss of use, of one lower extremity (foot or leg) after September 11, 2001, which makes it so you can’t balance or walk without the help of braces, crutches, canes, or a wheelchair
- Note: Only 120 Veterans and service members each fiscal year (FY) can qualify for a grant based on the loss of one extremity after September 11, 2001, as set by Congress. A fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30. If you qualify for a grant in the current fiscal year but you can’t receive it because of the 120-grant limit, you may be able to receive this benefit in future years.
Please contact a VSO at your local Benefit Office for additional information.
Special Home Adaptation (SHA) Grant
If you or a family member own or will own your home, and you have a qualifying service-connected disability, you may be approved for an Special Home Adaptation (SHA) grant. This grant can provide up to $25,350 for FY 2026 to buy, build, or change your permanent home to accommodate your disability. This is the current total maximum amount allowed for SHA grants.
Qualifying service-connected disabilities include:
- The loss or loss of use of both hands
- Certain severe burns
- Certain respiratory or breathing injuries
If you’re eligible for an SAH or SHA grant, you can use money from your grant up to 6 different times over your lifetime.
Depending on the adaptations you need, and the bid from your builder, you can use as much or as little of your grant as you need this year. If you don’t use the full amount, you can use more money from the grant in future years.
Please contact a VSO at your local Benefit Office for additional information.
Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E)
The Veterans Readiness and Employment (VR&E) program is designed to assist Veterans who have service-connected disabilities to obtain suitable employment and achieve independent living goals. The program can provide job training, employment accommodations, resume development, and job-seeking skills coaching. Through this program, the VA also offers Career Counseling.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also offers vocational counseling and support to qualified veterans' family members, including Education and Career counseling, Readjustment Counseling, Career assessments, Benefits for Children with Disabilities, Dependent Educational Assistance, and help choosing a school.
Please contact a VSO at your local Benefit Office for additional information.
Special Monthly Compensation (SMC)
Veterans and surviving spouses or parents who are eligible to receive VA compensation due to a service-related disability or death and require aid and attendance of another person to perform personal functions required in everyday living such as bathing, feeding, dressing, attending to the wants of nature, adjusting prosthetic devices, or protecting oneself from the hazards of the daily environment may be eligible for Special Monthly Compensation.
A veteran or a deceased veteran's surviving spouse may also be eligible for Special Monthly Compensation based on being housebound (substantially confined to the immediate premises because of permanent disability). For a veteran, the disability causing the need for aid and attendance or housebound status must be related to service. These benefits are paid in addition to monthly compensation or Dependency Indemnity Compensation (DIC). They are not paid without eligibility to compensation.
Death Indemnity Compensation
Death Indemnity Compensation (DIC) is the primary monthly monetary benefit payable to the surviving dependents of a deceased Veteran. This benefit is payable if the Veteran died on active duty from causes other than misconduct, if the Veteran’s death occurred following discharge and was due to a service-connected disability, or if the Veteran had a 100 percent combined disability rating for a certain statute time limit. If you are the spouse of a deceased, disabled Veteran, please get in touch with a Department VSO as soon after the Veteran’s death as is practical.
We recommend a surviving spouse or dependent of any Vietnam, Desert Storm, or Post 9/11 veteran who died of an illness that wasn’t service-connected make an appointment with a VSO at one of our Benefit Offices to review the circumstances of the Veteran’s death. The PACT Act of 2022 introduced several new presumptive conditions and illnesses. If we can service connect the Veteran’s death posthumously, the survivors may be eligible to receive DIC and other survivor benefits.