Benefits that are due to spouses, widows and the children of veterans: Dependency and Indemnity Compensation is a monthly benefit paid to eligible survivors ---- currently widows receive $1,033 a month tax-free.

To be eligible they must be:

1.) Of military service members who died while on active duty;

2.) Veteran whose death resulted from a service-related injury or disease;

3.) Veteran who was receiving V.A. compensation for service-connected disability at the 100 percent rate for 10 years or more immediately before death;

4.) Since veteran's release from service, at least five years immediately preceding death rated at 100 percent disability, and;

5. ) For POWs who died after Sept. 30, 1999 and were rated 100 percent at least a year prior to death.

To review these provisions go to the V.A. Web site at www.va.gov.

It's important to know that if a veteran's disability contributes to his death, but not the main cause of death, the widow still may be eligible for DIC. For example, a veteran dies of cancer because his service-connected heart condition kept the doctors from aggressively treating the cancer. A widow may file for DIC anytime after the death of a veteran.

Being a Vietnam veteran, I often wonder how many widows were told they weren't eligible for DIC years ago, but now because of new disabilities added to the Agent Orange list, such as diabetes, leukemia and lung cancer, these widows have become eligible. I recently filed a DIC claim for a Vietnam veteran who died in 1995 of diabetes II, but due to the change in the Agent Orange law, the widow is receiving $1,033.00 a month. In 1995, when she called the V.A., she was correctly told she wasn't eligible.

Many times when a veteran dies, a family member will call the V.A. to seek death benefit information only to be told that they aren't qualified. This is not always correct. V.A. personnel on the phones can only go by information on their computers and what the caller tells them.

If V.A. personnel do not know the veteran was exposed to atomic radiation and died of one of the presumptive cancers, the caller will most likely be told they are not qualified. Same with Agent Orange cases: if the veteran has never filed a claim, the V.A. may not even know the veteran was in Vietnam and died from a presumptive Agent Orange condition.

I had a widow call the V.A. and was told she wasn't qualified for DIC because her husband was only rated 20 percent disabled for bad ankles. After friends referred her to our office, I reviewed the death certificate, which showed the veteran died of a broken neck. Upon calling the veteran's doctor, I discovered because of his bad ankles he used a walker and was known to fall on a regular basis. With a doctor's letter, the DIC was granted. V.A. reps can't fully assess a case on the phone.

There was another case where the veteran had several surgeries for the same service-connected disability, then died because of a nonservice-connected cancer. Because the cancer originated at the surgical site, the doctor opined that the constant surgeries might have contributed to the development of the veteran's cancer, therefore DIC was granted.