Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This section can pay DIC as though death were service connected when a veteran had a qualifying continuous total-disability rating before death. It provides separate duration paths for ten years before death, five years from release from active duty, and certain former prisoners of war.
The veteran must have died for a reason other than the veteran's own willful misconduct and have been receiving or entitled to receive qualifying total-disability compensation, with a retired-pay qualification. A separate provision delays payments after certain damages recoveries until the withheld DIC equals the money or property received.
How this helps your claim
Section 1318 is an alternative statutory route, not a finding that the veteran's death was medically caused by a service-connected disability. The rating history, misconduct, survivor relationship, and marriage-duration requirements all matter.
What to check in your records
Build the continuous total-rating timeline and test each duration path against the dates of discharge and death.
- Collect rating decisions showing the effective dates and continuity of total disability.
- Confirm discharge, death, and former-prisoner-of-war status when relevant.
- Verify marriage duration or a child born to the couple.
Use effective dates, not only the last rating label
A decision showing a total rating at death does not establish how long it had been continuously in effect. Trace the effective date through later decisions and identify any interruption. For the five-year path, compare that date directly with release from active duty.
Keep section 1318 distinct from section 1310. Evidence that a service-connected disability caused death belongs to the section 1310 analysis. A long total-rating history can support section 1318 even when that causal route is not established, but only if all of section 1318's conditions are met.
Does any total rating at death qualify a survivor under section 1318?
No. The total rating generally must have been continuous for one of the specified periods. The statute also addresses willful misconduct, retired pay, marriage or child requirements, and certain damages recoveries.
Official statutory text
38 USC § 1318
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.
§ 1318. Benefits for survivors of certain veterans rated totally disabled at time of death
(a) The Secretary shall pay benefits under this chapter to the surviving spouse and to the children of a deceased veteran described in subsection (b) of this section in the same manner as if the veteran’s death were service connected.
(b) A deceased veteran referred to in subsection (a) of this section is a veteran who dies, not as the result of the veteran’s own willful misconduct, and who was in receipt of or entitled to receive (or but for the receipt of retired or retirement pay was entitled to receive) compensation at the time of death for a service-connected disability rated totally disabling if—
(1) the disability was continuously rated totally disabling for a period of 10 or more years immediately preceding death;
(2) the disability was continuously rated totally disabling for a period of not less than five years from the date of such veteran’s discharge or other release from active duty; or
(3) the veteran was a former prisoner of war and the disability was continuously rated totally disabling for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding death.
(c) Benefits may not be paid under this chapter by reason of this section to a surviving spouse of a veteran unless—
(1) the surviving spouse was married to the veteran for one year or more immediately preceding the veteran’s death; or
(2) a child was born of the marriage or was born to them before the marriage.
(d) If a surviving spouse or a child receives any money or property of value pursuant to an award in a judicial proceeding based upon, or a settlement or compromise of, any cause of action for damages for the death of a veteran described in subsection (a) of this section, benefits under this chapter payable to such surviving spouse or child by virtue of this section shall not be paid for any month following a month in which any such money or property is received until such time as the total amount of such benefits that would otherwise have been payable equals the total of the amount of the money received and the fair market value of the property received.
(e) For purposes of sections 1448(d) and 1450(c) of title 10, eligibility for benefits under this chapter by virtue of this section shall be deemed eligibility for dependency and indemnity compensation under section 1311(a) of this title.
Related references
- 38 USC § 1304: Marriage-duration rules for surviving-spouse DIC
- 38 USC § 1310: When a service-connected death supports DIC
- 38 USC § 1311: DIC rates and additions for a surviving spouse
- 38 USC § 5110: Effective Dates and Continuous Pursuit in Federal Law
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