Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This section sets effective-date rules for a surviving spouse’s aid-and-attendance, housebound, and certain Medicaid nursing-home benefit changes.
Aid-and-attendance benefits can also begin on departure from VA-funded hospital, institutional, or domiciliary care under the stated provision. Housebound benefits can be paid during such hospitalization and do not use that departure rule.
How this helps your claim
For aid and attendance or housebound status, the ordinary rule is the later of VA’s receipt of the claim or the date entitlement arose. When the underlying original or supplemental DIC or pension award reaches back earlier, the increase can cover the portion of that retroactive period in which the additional eligibility is established.
What to check in your records
Separate the underlying survivor award’s effective date from the date evidence first establishes the additional aid-and-attendance or housebound requirement.
- Keep the original or supplemental survivor claim and its receipt date.
- Gather dated medical and care records showing when aid-and-attendance or housebound criteria began.
- For Medicaid-covered nursing-home changes, preserve coverage start or end records and the related DIC or pension claim date.
Use two timelines
Put the underlying DIC or pension claim on one line and the additional-care evidence on another. The payable increase begins only where both timelines support it.
For Medicaid nursing-home transitions, obtain the exact coverage date rather than using an admission or discharge date that may differ. The one-year filing provisions in paragraph (d) depend on those events.
Can aid and attendance be paid for the entire retroactive DIC period?
Only for the part of the retroactive period in which entitlement to the additional benefit is established. The DIC effective date alone does not prove the care criteria existed throughout.
Official regulatory text
38 CFR § 3.402
eCFR snapshot: 2026-09-17. Layout and spacing are adapted for reading. The full section and its tables are included below.
§ 3.402 Surviving spouse.
Awards of pension, compensation, or dependency and indemnity compensation to or for a surviving spouse will be effective as follows:
(a) Additional allowance of dependency and indemnity compensation for children § 3.5(e). Commencing date of surviving spouse's award. See § 3.400(c).
(b) Legal surviving spouse entitled. See § 3.657.
(c) Aid and attendance and housebound benefits.
(1) Date of receipt of claim or date entitlement arose whichever is later. However, when an award of dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) or pension based on an original or supplemental claim is effective for a period prior to date of receipt of the claim, any additional DIC or pension payable to the surviving spouse by reason of need for aid and attendance or housebound status shall also be awarded for any part of the award's retroactive period for which entitlement to the additional benefit is established.
(Authority: 38 U.S.C. 501; 5110(d))
(2) Date of departure from hospital, institutional or domiciliary care at Department of Veterans Affairs expense. This is applicable only to aid and attendance benefits. Housebound benefits may be awarded during hospitalization at Department of Veterans Affairs expense.
(d) Medicaid-covered nursing home care.
(1) If a surviving spouse described in § 3.152(b)(1)(ii)(B) stops receiving Medicaid-covered nursing home care, dependency and indemnity compensation, if otherwise in order, will be effective as of the date Medicaid coverage ceased, if a claim for dependency and indemnity compensation is received within one year of the date Medicaid coverage ceased; otherwise, it will be effective as of the date of receipt of claim or date entitlement arose, whichever is later.
(2) If a surviving spouse who is receiving dependency and indemnity compensation and who, but for eligibility for dependency and indemnity compensation, would be eligible for survivors pension, begins receiving Medicaid-covered nursing home care, survivors pension will be effective as of the first day of the month after dependency and indemnity compensation was discontinued, if a claim for survivors pension is received within one year of the date dependency and indemnity compensation was discontinued; otherwise, it will be effective as of the date of receipt of claim or date entitlement arose, whichever is later.
(Authority: 38 U.S.C. 501)
[45 FR 34887, May 23, 1980, as amended at 84 FR 170, Jan. 18, 2019; 91 FR 2713, Jan. 22, 2026]
Related references
- 38 CFR § 3.351: Aid and attendance and housebound status for pension and survivors
- 38 CFR § 3.10: How VA calculates a surviving spouse’s DIC rate
- 38 CFR § 3.152: How VA treats a claim for death benefits
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