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View or change dependents on your VA disability benefits

Find out if you’re eligible and how to add a dependent spouse, child, or parent to your VA disability benefits for additional compensation. You can also sign in to VA.gov to view dependents currently added to your benefits.

Am I eligible for additional VA disability compensation for one or more of my dependents?

You may be eligible for additional disability compensation for a qualified spouse, child, and/or parent if you meet both of these requirements.

Both of these must be true:

  • You're eligible for VA disability compensation, and
  • You have a combined disability rating of at least 30%

Adding a dependent may make you eligible to receive a higher compensation payment (also called a benefit rate).

Who does VA consider a dependent?

A dependent is:

  • A spouse (Note: We recognize same-sex and common-law marriages)
  • A parent, if you’re directly caring for them and their income and net worth are below a certain amount
  • An unmarried child (including an adopted child or stepchild) who meets one of the eligibility requirements listed below

To be considered a dependent, one of these must be true of an unmarried child:

  • They're under 18 years old, or
  • They're between the ages of 18 and 23 years old and enrolled in school full time, or
  • They became permanently disabled before they turned 18

When should I add a dependent to my benefits?

This depends on where you're in the process of filing for disability compensation.

If you haven’t yet filed a claim for disability compensation

You can file a claim for additional compensation for a dependent at the same time as you file your original claim for disability compensation.

If you receive a combined disability rating of at least 30%, we’ll automatically consider your eligibility for additional compensation for your dependent. 

Find out how to file a claim for disability compensation

If you have one or more dependents, but you didn’t claim them when you originally filed for disability compensation

If you have a combined disability rating of at least 30%, you can file a claim for additional disability compensation now.

If something changes in your family status after you received a combined disability rating of at least 30%

You can file a claim for additional disability compensation whenever you add a dependent.

You can add a dependent if:

  • You get married
  • You have or adopt a child
  • Your child is between 18 and 23 years old and enrolled in school full time
  • We determine that your child, who's at least 18 years old, became permanently disabled before turning 18
  • You become the caregiver for a parent whose income and net worth is below a certain amount

How to view current dependents

You can use our online tool to review the current dependents you've added to your VA disability benefits. To do this, you need to be signed in to VA.gov with a verified account.

How to add a dependent to your VA disability benefits

How do I add a dependent to my benefits?

To file a claim for additional disability compensation for a child or spouse

You can file a claim for additional compensation for a child or spouse online.

Note: You may need to provide more information or forms along with your claim.

 

If you’re claiming your child who became permanently disabled before they turned 18, you’ll need to turn in all private medical records relating to the child’s disabilities with your application.

If your dependent is a child who’s between 18 and 23 years old and attending school full time, you’ll also need to submit a Request for Approval of School Attendance (VA Form 21-674) with your application.

Get VA Form 21-674 to download

To file a claim for additional disability compensation for a dependent parent

You’ll need to fill out and submit a Statement of Dependency of Parent(s) (VA Form 21P-509) by mail.
Get VA Form 21P-509 to download

Please send all correspondence related to compensation claims to this address:

Department of Veterans Affairs
Evidence Intake Center
PO Box 4444
Janesville, WI 53547-4444

What if I need help with my claim?

You can work with an accredited Veterans Service Officer (VSO). We trust these professionals because they’re trained and certified in the VA claims and appeals process. A VSO can answer your questions or even file your claim for you.
Get help filing your claim

More questions about adding or removing a dependent

Questions about the process and timing for adding a dependent

Yes, but we encourage you to file online. The online process is simple, and you can upload your supporting documents along with your claim.

When you file your claim online, we recognize the day you start the online claim process as the date VA received your claim. This means that if we decide you’re eligible for additional disability compensation, we’ll pay you back to this date.

If you can’t, or don’t want to file online, you can file a claim for additional disability compensation by mail using these forms:

Mail your completed form(s) to:

Department of Veterans Affairs
Evidence Intake Center
PO Box 4444
Janesville, WI 53547-4444

You can file your claim again online for a faster decision. If we award you additional disability compensation, we’ll give you back pay from the original date we received your paper form.

We may pay you back to the date of your marriage or the birth or adoption of your child if you meet all of these requirements.

All of these must be true:

  • You had already received a combined disability rating of at least 30% at the time of the marriage, birth, or adoption, and
  • You file your claim for additional disability compensation for the dependent within a year of the marriage, birth, or adoption, and
  • You respond within a year to our request for any more information or evidence needed to confirm your claim

If it’s been more than one year since you got married or had or adopted a child, we may not pay you back to the date of the marriage, birth, or adoption. Instead, we may pay you back only to the date we received your claim for additional disability for the dependent or, in some cases, up to a year before this date.

We’ll begin paying you within 2 weeks after we approve your claim.

Questions about adding or removing certain kinds of dependents

If you and your spouse are both Veterans with a combined disability rating of at least 30%, you can both receive additional disability compensation for each other and for your children.

You should know: It’ll take us longer to process your claim if your spouse is also a Veteran. But if you file your claim online, and we decide you’re eligible for additional disability compensation for your dependent(s), we’ll pay you back to the date you started the online claim process.

You can use our online tool to remove a divorced spouse or a dependent from your disability compensation. We’ll need more time to process a request that involves a child than a request that involves a spouse, but the online process is still much faster than submitting a paper request.

If you get divorced, you’ll want to notify us right away. You don’t need to send or upload supporting documents in this case. This will help to make sure we don’t continue paying you additional disability compensation for your former spouse and, if applicable, stepchildren after the divorce. If we continue paying you benefits that you’re not eligible for, we may withhold money from future payments until you’ve paid us back.
 

If you have a child who will remain in school past the age of 18, you’ll need to add their information again in our online tool. This is because we automatically remove children from disability compensation when they turn 18.

No. We’ll track your child’s age based on the date of birth you give us when you submit your claim. When your child turns 18, we’ll stop paying additional disability compensation for them unless you let us know they’re enrolled in school full time.

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