U.S. Code of Federal Regulations

Regulations most recently checked for updates: Aug 27, 2025

All TitlesTitle 38Chapter IPart 3Subpart A - Subpart A—Pension, Compensation, and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation

GENERAL
§ 3.1 - Definitions.
§ 3.2 - Periods of war.
§ 3.3 - Pension.
§ 3.4 - Compensation.
§ 3.5 - Dependency and indemnity compensation.
§ 3.6 - Duty periods.
§ 3.7 - Individuals and groups considered to have performed active military, naval, air, or space service.
§ 3.10 - Dependency and indemnity compensation rate for a surviving spouse.
§ 3.11 - Homicide.
§ 3.12 - Benefit eligibility based on character of discharge.
§ 3.12a - Minimum active-duty service requirement.
§ 3.13 - Discharge to change status.
§ 3.14 - Validity of enlistments.
§ 3.15 - Computation of service.
§ 3.16 - Service pension.
§ 3.17 - Disability and death pension; Mexican border period and later war periods.
§§ 3.18-3.19 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.20 - Surviving spouse's benefit for month of veteran's death.
§ 3.21 - Monetary rates.
§ 3.22 - DIC benefits for survivors of certain veterans rated totally disabled at time of death.
§ 3.23 - Improved pension rates—Veterans and surviving spouses.
§ 3.24 - Improved pension rates—Surviving children.
§ 3.25 - Parent's dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC)—Method of payment computation.
§ 3.26 - Section 306 and old-law pension annual income limitations.
§ 3.27 - Automatic adjustment of benefit rates.
§ 3.28 - Automatic adjustment of section 306 and old-law pension income limitations.
§ 3.29 - Rounding.
§ 3.30 - Frequency of payment of improved pension and parents' dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC).
§ 3.31 - Commencement of the period of payment.
§ 3.32 - Exchange rates for foreign currencies.
§ 3.33 - Reevaluation of Claims for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Involving Presumptions of Service Connection Following Enactment of Public Law 117-168.
§ 3.40 - Philippine and Insular Forces.
§ 3.41 - Philippine service.
§ 3.42 - Compensation at the full-dollar rate for certain Filipino veterans residing in the United States.
§ 3.43 - Burial benefits at the full-dollar rate for certain Filipino veterans residing in the United States on the date of death.

RELATIONSHIP
§ 3.50 - Spouse and surviving spouse.
§ 3.52 - Marriages deemed valid.
§ 3.53 - Continuous cohabitation.
§ 3.54 - Marriage dates.
§ 3.55 - Reinstatement of benefits eligibility based upon terminated marital relationships.
§ 3.56 - [Reserved]
§ 3.57 - Child.
§ 3.58 - Child adopted out of family.
§ 3.59 - Parent.
§ 3.60 - Definition of “living with”.

ADMINISTRATIVE
§ 3.100 - Delegations of authority.
§ 3.102 - Reasonable doubt.
§ 3.103 - Procedural due process and other rights.
§ 3.104 - Binding nature of decisions.
§ 3.105 - Revision of decisions.
§ 3.106 - Renouncement.
§ 3.107 - Awards where not all dependents apply.
§ 3.108 - State Department as agent of Department of Veterans Affairs.
§ 3.109 - Time limit.
§ 3.110 - Computation of time limit.
§ 3.111 - [Reserved]
§ 3.112 - Fractions of one cent.
§ 3.114 - Change of law or Department of Veterans Affairs issue.
§ 3.115 - Access to financial records.

CLAIMS
§ 3.150 - Forms to be furnished.
§ 3.151 - Claims for disability benefits.
§ 3.152 - Claims for death benefits.
§ 3.153 - Claims filed with Social Security.
§ 3.154 - Injury due to hospital treatment, etc.
§ 3.155 - How to file a claim.
§ 3.156 - New evidence.
§ 3.158 - Abandoned claims.
§ 3.159 - Department of Veterans Affairs assistance in developing claims.
§ 3.160 - Status of claims.
§ 3.161 - [Reserved]

EVIDENCE REQUIREMENTS
§ 3.200 - Testimony certified or under oath.
§ 3.201 - Exchange of evidence; Social Security and Department of Veterans Affairs.
§ 3.202 - Evidence from foreign countries.
§ 3.203 - Service records as evidence of service and character of discharge.
§ 3.204 - Evidence of dependents and age.
§ 3.205 - Marriage.
§ 3.206 - Divorce.
§ 3.207 - Void or annulled marriage.
§ 3.208 - Claims based on attained age.
§ 3.209 - Birth.
§ 3.210 - Child's relationship.
§ 3.211 - Death.
§ 3.212 - Unexplained absence for 7 years.
§ 3.213 - Change of status affecting entitlement.
§ 3.214 - Court decisions; unremarried surviving spouses.
§ 3.215 - Termination of marital relationship or conduct.
§ 3.216 - Mandatory disclosure of social security numbers.
§ 3.217 - Submission of statements or information affecting entitlement to benefits.

DEPENDENCY, INCOME AND ESTATE
REGULATIONS APPLICABLE TO PROGRAMS IN EFFECT PRIOR TO JANUARY 1, 1979
§ 3.270 - Applicability of various dependency, income and estate regulations.
§ 3.250 - Dependency of parents; compensation.
§ 3.251 - Income of parents; dependency and indemnity compensation.
§ 3.252 - Annual income; pension; Mexican border period and later war periods.
§§ 3.253-3.255 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.256 - Eligibility reporting requirements.
§ 3.257 - Children; no surviving spouse entitled.
§§ 3.258-3.259 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.260 - Computation of income.
§ 3.261 - Character of income; exclusions and estates.
§ 3.262 - Evaluation of income.
§ 3.263 - Corpus of estate; net worth.

REGULATIONS APPLICABLE TO THE IMPROVED PENSION PROGRAM WHICH BECAME EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1979
§ 3.271 - Computation of income.
§ 3.272 - Exclusions from income.
§ 3.273 - Rate computation.
§ 3.274 - Net worth and VA pension.
§ 3.275 - How VA determines the asset amount for pension net worth determinations.
§ 3.276 - Asset transfers and penalty periods.
§ 3.277 - Eligibility reporting requirements.
§ 3.278 - Deductible medical expenses.
§ 3.279 - Statutory exclusions from income or assets (net worth or corpus of the estate).

RATINGS AND EVALUATIONS; BASIC ENTITLEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
§ 3.300 - Claims based on the effects of tobacco products.
§ 3.301 - Line of duty and misconduct.
§ 3.302 - Service connection for mental unsoundness in suicide.

RATINGS AND EVALUATIONS; SERVICE CONNECTION
§ 3.303 - Principles relating to service connection.
§ 3.304 - Direct service connection; wartime and peacetime.
§ 3.305 - Direct service connection; peacetime service before January 1, 1947.
§ 3.306 - Aggravation of preservice disability.
§ 3.307 - Presumptive service connection for chronic, tropical, or prisoner-of-war related disease, disease associated with exposure to certain herbicide agents, or disease associated with exposure to contaminants in the water supply at Camp Lejeune; wartime and service on or after January 1, 1947.
§ 3.308 - Presumptive service connection; peacetime service before January 1, 1947.
§ 3.309 - Disease subject to presumptive service connection.
§ 3.310 - Disabilities that are proximately due to, or aggravated by, service-connected disease or injury.
§ 3.311 - Claims based on exposure to ionizing radiation.
§ 3.312 - Cause of death.
§ 3.313 - Claims based on service in Vietnam.
§ 3.314 - Basic pension determinations.
§ 3.315 - Basic eligibility determinations; dependents, loans, education.
§ 3.316 - Claims based on chronic effects of exposure to mustard gas and Lewisite.
§ 3.317 - Compensation for certain disabilities occurring in Persian Gulf veterans.
§ 3.318 - Presumptive service connection for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
§ 3.319 - [Reserved]
§ 3.320 - Claims based on exposure to fine particulate matter.
§ 3.320a - Presumptive service connection for bladder, ureter, and related genitourinary cancers.
§ 3.320b - Presumptive service connection for leukemias, multiple myelomas, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myelofibrosis.
§ 3.321 - General rating considerations.
§ 3.322 - Rating of disabilities aggravated by service.
§ 3.323 - Combined ratings.
§ 3.324 - Multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities.
§ 3.325 - [Reserved]
§ 3.326 - Examinations.
§ 3.327 - Reexaminations.
§ 3.328 - lndependent medical opinions.
§ 3.329 - [Reserved]
§ 3.330 - Resumption of rating when veteran subsequently reports for Department of Veterans Affairs examination.
§§ 3.331-3.339 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.340 - Total and permanent total ratings and unemployability.
§ 3.341 - Total disability ratings for compensation purposes.
§ 3.342 - Permanent and total disability ratings for pension purposes.
§ 3.343 - Continuance of total disability ratings.
§ 3.344 - Stabilization of disability evaluations.

RATINGS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES
§ 3.350 - Special monthly compensation ratings.
§ 3.351 - Special monthly dependency and indemnity compensation, death compensation, pension and spouse's compensation ratings.
§ 3.352 - Criteria for determining need for aid and attendance and “permanently bedridden.”
§ 3.353 - Determinations of incompetency and competency.
§ 3.354 - Determinations of insanity.
§ 3.355 - Testamentary capacity for insurance purposes.
§ 3.356 - Conditions which determine permanent incapacity for self-support.
§ 3.357 - Civil service preference ratings.
§ 3.358 - Compensation for disability or death from hospitalization, medical or surgical treatment, examinations or vocational rehabilitation training (§ 3.800).
§ 3.359 - Determination of service connection for former members of the Armed Forces of Czechoslovakia or Poland.
§ 3.360 - Service-connected health-care eligibility of certain persons administratively discharged under other than honorable condition.
§ 3.361 - Benefits under 38 U.S.C. 1151(a) for additional disability or death due to hospital care, medical or surgical treatment, examination, training and rehabilitation services, or compensated work therapy program.
§ 3.362 - Offsets under 38 U.S.C. 1151(b) of benefits awarded under 38 U.S.C. 1151(a).
§ 3.363 - Bar to benefits under 38 U.S.C. 1151.

RATING CONSIDERATIONS RELATIVE TO SPECIFIC DISEASES
§ 3.370 - Pulmonary tuberculosis shown by X-ray in active service.
§ 3.371 - Presumptive service connection for tuberculous disease; wartime and service on or after January 1, 1947.
§ 3.372 - Initial grant following inactivity of tuberculosis.
§ 3.373 - [Reserved]
§ 3.374 - Effect of diagnosis of active tuberculosis.
§ 3.375 - Determination of inactivity (complete arrest) in tuberculosis.
§§ 3.376-3.377 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.378 - Changes from activity in pulmonary tuberculosis pension cases.
§ 3.379 - Anterior poliomyelitis.
§ 3.380 - Diseases of allergic etiology.
§ 3.381 - Service connection of dental conditions for treatment purposes.
§ 3.382 - [Reserved]
§ 3.383 - Special consideration for paired organs and extremities.
§ 3.384 - Psychosis.
§ 3.385 - Disability due to impaired hearing.

EFFECTIVE DATES
§ 3.400 - General.
§ 3.401 - Veterans.
§ 3.402 - Surviving spouse.
§ 3.403 - Children.
§ 3.404 - Parents.
§ 3.405 - Filipino veterans and their survivors; benefits at the full-dollar rate.

APPORTIONMENTS
§ 3.450 - General.
§ 3.451 - Special apportionments.
§ 3.452 - Situations when benefits may be apportioned.
§ 3.453 - Veterans compensation or service pension or retirement pay.
§ 3.454 - Veterans disability pension.
§ 3.458 - Veteran's benefits not apportionable.
§ 3.459 - Death compensation.
§ 3.460 - Death pension.
§ 3.461 - Dependency and indemnity compensation.

REDUCTIONS AND DISCONTINUANCES
§ 3.500 - General.
§ 3.501 - Veterans.
§ 3.502 - Surviving spouses.
§ 3.503 - Children.
§ 3.504 - Parents; aid and attendance.
§ 3.505 - Filipino veterans and their survivors; benefits at the full-dollar rate.

HOSPITALIZATION ADJUSTMENTS
§ 3.551 - Reduction because of hospitalization.
§ 3.552 - Adjustment of allowance for aid and attendance.
§§ 3.553-3.555 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.556 - Adjustment on discharge or release.
§ 3.557 - [Reserved]
§ 3.558 - Resumption and payment of withheld benefits; incompetents with estates that equaled or exceeded statutory limit.
§ 3.559 - [Reserved]

ADJUSTMENTS AND RESUMPTIONS
§ 3.650 - Rate for additional dependent.
§ 3.651 - Change in status of dependents.
§ 3.652 - Periodic certification of continued eligibility.
§ 3.653 - Foreign residence.
§ 3.654 - Active service pay.
§ 3.655 - Failure to report for Department of Veterans Affairs examination.
§ 3.656 - Disappearance of veteran.
§ 3.657 - Surviving spouse becomes entitled, or entitlement terminates.
§ 3.658 - Offsets; dependency and indemnity compensation.
§ 3.659 - Two parents in same parental line.
§ 3.660 - Dependency, income and estate.
§ 3.661 - Eligibility Verification Reports.
§§ 3.662-3.664 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.665 - Incarcerated beneficiaries and fugitive felons—compensation.
§ 3.666 - Incarcerated beneficiaries and fugitive felons—pension.
§ 3.667 - School attendance.
§ 3.668 - [Reserved]
§ 3.669 - Forfeiture.

CONCURRENT BENEFITS AND ELECTIONS
§ 3.700 - General.
§ 3.701 - Elections of pension or compensation.
§ 3.702 - Dependency and indemnity compensation.
§ 3.703 - Two parents in same parental line.
§ 3.704 - Elections within class of dependents.
§§ 3.705-3.706 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.707 - Dependents' educational assistance.
§ 3.708 - Federal Employees' Compensation.
§ 3.710 - Civil service annuitants.
§ 3.711 - Improved pension elections.
§ 3.712 - Improved pension elections; surviving spouses of Spanish-American War veterans.
§ 3.713 - Effective dates of improved pension elections.
§ 3.714 - Improved pension elections—public assistance beneficiaries.
§ 3.715 - Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, as amended.

RETIREMENT
§ 3.750 - Entitlement to concurrent receipt of military retired pay and disability compensation.
§ 3.751 - Statutory awards; retired service personnel.
§ 3.752 - [Reserved]
§ 3.753 - Public Health Service.
§ 3.754 - Emergency officers' retirement pay.

SPECIAL BENEFITS
§ 3.800 - Disability or death due to hospitalization, etc.
§ 3.801 - Special acts.
§ 3.802 - Medal of Honor.
§ 3.803 - Naval pension.
§ 3.804 - Special allowance under 38 U.S.C. 1312.
§ 3.805 - Loan guaranty for surviving spouses; certification.
§ 3.806 - Death gratuity; certification.
§ 3.807 - Dependents' educational assistance; certification.
§ 3.808 - Automobiles or other conveyances and adaptive equipment; certification.
§ 3.809 - Specially adapted housing under 38 U.S.C. 2101(a)(2)(A)(i).
§ 3.809a - Special home adaptation grants under 38 U.S.C. 2101(b).
§ 3.810 - Clothing allowance.
§ 3.811 - Minimum income annuity and gratuitous annuity.
§ 3.812 - Special allowance payable under section 156 of Pub. L. 97-377.
§ 3.813 - Interim benefits for disability or death due to chloracne or porphyria cutanea tarda.
§ 3.814 - Monetary allowance under 38 U.S.C. chapter 18 for an individual suffering from spina bifida whose biological father or mother is or was a Vietnam veteran or a veteran with covered service in Korea.
§ 3.815 - Monetary allowance under 38 U.S.C. chapter 18 for an individual with disability from covered birth defects whose biological mother is or was a Vietnam veteran; identification of covered birth defects.
§ 3.816 - Awards under the Nehmer Court Orders for disability or death caused by a condition presumptively associated with herbicide exposure.

FORFEITURE
§ 3.900 - General.
§ 3.901 - Fraud.
§ 3.902 - Treasonable acts.
§ 3.903 - Subversive activities.
§ 3.904 - Effect of forfeiture after veteran's death.
§ 3.905 - Declaration of forfeiture or remission of forfeiture.

PROTECTION
§ 3.950 - Helpless children; Spanish-American and prior wars.
§ 3.951 - Preservation of disability ratings.
§ 3.952 - Protected ratings.
§ 3.953 - Pub. L. 85-56 and Pub. L. 85-857.
§§ 3.955-3.956 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.957 - Service connection.
§ 3.958 - Federal employees' compensation cases.
§ 3.959 - Tuberculosis.
§ 3.960 - Section 306 and old-law pension protection.

ACCRUED
§ 3.1000 - Entitlement under 38 U.S.C. 5121 to benefits due and unpaid upon death of a beneficiary.
§ 3.1001 - Hospitalized competent veterans.
§ 3.1002 - Political subdivisions of United States.
§ 3.1003 - Returned and canceled checks.
§§ 3.1004-3.1006 - §[Reserved]
§ 3.1007 - Hospitalized incompetent veterans.
§ 3.1008 - Accrued benefits payable to foreign beneficiaries.
§ 3.1009 - Personal funds of patients.
§ 3.1010 - Substitution under 38 U.S.C. 5121A following death of a claimant.
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