Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This section directs VA to decide whether a veteran's parent is dependent under VA regulations. It protects some parents from being denied solely because they remarried and excludes specified veterans' and state service payments from the income calculation.
A remarriage cannot be the sole reason for denying dependency. The statute also requires VA to prescribe minimum monthly-income levels that take marital status and family members the parent must support into account. The controlling income limits and calculation details therefore come from current implementing rules, not from this section alone.
How this helps your claim
This rule matters when an award or survivor claim depends on recognizing a mother or father as a dependent parent. The legal question is financial dependency under the applicable rules, not simply the family relationship.
What to check in your records
Compare VA's dependency finding with the parent's household, income, support obligations, and the exclusions stated here.
- Confirm the parent-child relationship with the records VA requested.
- List the parent's monthly income and identify each source separately.
- Check whether VA excluded qualifying VA disability, death, or state service payments.
Build the income picture one source at a time
Use the same period for every income figure and label who received it. Keep pension statements, benefit letters, and evidence of people the parent is legally or morally obligated to support. A single bank balance does not explain which deposits count under the dependency rules.
If VA counted a payment that this statute excludes, identify the payment, amount, and source in the decision record. If VA denied the claim because of remarriage, check whether it also made an independent financial-dependency finding.
Does being the veteran's parent automatically establish dependency?
No. The relationship and financial-dependency questions are separate. VA applies current regulations to income, marital status, and support obligations. This statute prevents certain reasons for denial and excludes specified payments, but it does not recognize every parent as financially dependent.
Official statutory text
38 USC § 102
OLRC release: pl-119-108. Layout and spacing are adapted for reading. The statutory text is shown here; publisher source credits and editorial notes remain in the linked official release.
§ 102. Dependent parents
(a) Dependency of a parent, which may arise before or after the death of a veteran, shall be determined in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary.
(b) Dependency of a parent shall not be denied (1) solely because of remarriage, or (2) in any case in any State where the monthly income for a mother or father does not exceed minimum levels which the Secretary shall prescribe by regulation, giving due regard to the marital status of the mother or father and additional members of the family whom the mother or father is under a moral or legal obligation to support.
(c) For the purposes of this section, in determining monthly income the Secretary shall not consider any payments under laws administered by the Secretary because of disability or death or payments of bonus or similar cash gratuity by any State based upon service in the Armed Forces.
Related references
- 38 USC § 101: Key Definitions for VA Benefit Eligibility
- 38 USC § 1115: Extra VA Compensation for Dependents
- 38 USC § 1315: Income-based DIC for a veteran's parents
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