4. What is compensation?

Compensation is Veterans Affairs monthly cash benefits payable to veterans for problems related to the time of life they were in active service. They are also available if you were injured in a Veterans Affairs hospital. If Veterans Affairs considers you are disabled by a condition that is service connected, it will then determine the percentage to which you are disabled and then base your monthly payments on the extent to which you are currently disabled.

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§3.4 Compensation.

(a) Compensation. This term means a monthly payment made by the Department of Veterans Affairs to a veteran because of service-connected disability, or to a surviving spouse, child, or parent of a veteran because of the service-connected death of the veteran occurring before January 1, 1957, or under the circumstances outlined in paragraph (c)(2) of this section. If the veteran was discharged or released from service, the discharge or release must have been under conditions other than dishonorable. (Authority: 38 U.S.C. 101(2), (13))

( Disability compensation.

(1) Basic entitlement for a veteran exists if the veteran is disabled as the result of a personal injury or disease (including aggravation of a condition existing prior to service) while in active service if the injury or the disease was incurred or aggravated in line of duty. (Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1110, 1131)

(2) An additional amount of compensation may be payable for a spouse, child, and/or dependent parent where a veteran is entitled to compensation based on disability evaluated as 30 per centum or more disabling. (Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1115)

(c) Death compensation. Basic entitlement exists for a surviving spouse, child or children, and dependent parent or parents if:

(1) The veteran died before January 1, 1957; or

(2) The veteran died on or after May 1, 1957, and before January 1, 1972, if at the time of death a policy of United States Government Life Insurance or National Service Life Insurance was in effect under waiver of premiums under 38 U.S.C. 1924 unless the waiver was granted under the first proviso of section 622(a) of the National Service Life Insurance Act of 1940, and the veteran died before return to military jurisdiction or within 120 days thereafter. (See §3.5(d) as to Public Health Service.) (Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1121, 1141)