articles - VETERANS BENEFITS

BENEFITS FOR REMARRIED SPOUSES
(Washington Post, December 29, 2003)

The Veterans Benefits Act of 2003, signed into law by President Bush on December 15, 2003 contains expanded survivor benefits that may end up going to only 15 percent of those who are eligible.

The new law allows surviving spouses who remarry after age 57 to keep receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation if they were getting the monthly payments before remarriage. Survivors also could use home-loan and education benefits under the new law. Those who remarry before age 57 would continue to lose their veterans' survivor benefits.