Free VA Benefits Calculators & Eligibility Screeners

What it is: Tax-free monthly cash compensation paid to veterans whose current health conditions are connected to their military service. Governed by 38 CFR Part 4 (the Schedule for Rating Disabilities). The legal standard requires three things: (1) a current diagnosis, (2) an in-service event, injury, or exposure, and (3) a nexus — a medical link between the two.

How the math works (38 CFR §4.25, Combined Ratings Formula): The VA does not add ratings together. It uses a “whole person” method. Start at 100. Apply the highest rating first. A 50% rating leaves 50 remaining. A 30% rating applied to those 50 remaining points equals 15 more, bringing the combined to 65. The VA then rounds to the nearest 10, producing a 70% combined rating. The veteran with a 50% and a 30% rating does not receive an 80% combined rating — they receive a 70% combined rating. This is why understanding the formula matters before you file additional claims.

Bilateral Factor (38 CFR §4.26): If you have a ratable disability in both arms or both legs, the VA applies a 10% increase to the combined bilateral ratings before folding them into the overall combined rating. This is one of the most commonly missed adjustments in the system.

Special Monthly Compensation (SMC): Veterans with the most severe service-connected conditions — loss of use of a limb, blindness, the need for aid and attendance — can receive SMC payments that exceed the 100% rate, ranging from roughly $4,500 to over $10,000 per month depending on the SMC level (SMC-K through SMC-S and beyond). These are not automatic — they must be claimed.

What it is: Comprehensive health care coverage including primary care, mental health, specialty care, prescription drugs, vision, dental (in certain circumstances), and emergency care. Most enrolled veterans pay $0 in monthly premiums. Governed by 38 CFR Part 17.

PACT Act expansion: Under the PACT Act, veterans who served in Southwest Asia after August 2, 1990, or in certain other locations, are now eligible for five years of free VA health care for any condition — not just service-connected ones — if they enroll by October 1, 2027. This is one of the most significant enrollment windows in VA history. If you served during those periods and have not enrolled, that deadline matters.

What it is: Education benefits that pay for college, trade school, on-the-job training, flight school, and more. The most widely used program is the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33), available to veterans who served at least 90 days of active duty after September 10, 2001.

Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33), 2025–2026 Rates

• Tuition & fees: Paid in full at public in-state schools. At private or foreign schools, capped at $29,920.95 per academic year (2025–2026).
• Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA): Paid at the BAH E-5 with dependents rate for the zip code of your school. In high-cost cities this can exceed $3,000 per month. Online-only students receive $1,118.50 per month (2025–2026 rate).
• Books & supplies stipend: Up to $1,000 per academic year, paid proportionally per credit hour.
• Eligibility: Based on length of active-duty service after 9/10/2001. 36 months or more = 100% benefit. 90 days = 40% benefit. The percentage scales between those points.
• Transfer of entitlement: Active-duty members with at least 6 years of service who commit to 4 more years can transfer unused benefits to a spouse or dependent child. This must be approved while still on active duty.

Montgomery GI Bill (Chapter 30): An older program that pays a flat monthly rate (approximately $2,400 per month for full-time enrollment) but does not cover tuition separately. Generally less valuable than Chapter 33 for most veterans.

What it is: A VA-guaranteed home loan program that allows eligible veterans, active-duty service members, and surviving spouses to purchase a home with $0 down payment, no private mortgage insurance (PMI), and competitive interest rates. Governed by 38 CFR Part 36.

Key Advantages Over Conventional Loans

• No down payment required (for loans within conforming limits, and in many cases above them with full entitlement).
• No PMI. On a conventional loan, a borrower putting less than 20% down typically pays 0.5% to 1.5% of the loan amount annually in PMI. On a $400,000 home, that is $2,000 to $6,000 per year — or up to $180,000 over 30 years — that VA-eligible veterans do not pay.
• VA funding fee applies in most cases but is waived entirely for veterans receiving VA disability compensation at any rating.
• No prepayment penalty.
• Assumable loans — a future buyer can take over your VA loan terms, a significant selling advantage in a high-rate environment.

2026 VA Funding Fee Schedule (Purchase Loans)

Entitlement: VA loan entitlement does not expire. A veteran who used their benefit in 1998 and paid off that loan has full entitlement restored and can use it again. Veterans can also have two VA loans simultaneously under certain conditions.

Adapted Housing Grants (SAH/SHA): Veterans with certain severe service-connected disabilities may qualify for the Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) grant of up to $126,526 or the Special Home Adaptation (SHA) grant of up to $25,350 (FY2026) to build, buy, or modify a home for accessibility.

What it is: A tax-free, needs-based monthly benefit for wartime veterans with limited income and net worth. This is not disability compensation — you do not need a service-connected condition to qualify. You need wartime service, financial need, and age or permanent disability. Governed by 38 CFR Part 3.

Eligibility Basics

• Served at least 90 days of active duty, with at least one day during a wartime period (WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam Era, Gulf War).
• Discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.
• Net worth must be below $163,699 (2026 threshold, adjusted annually).
• 65 or older, OR permanently and totally disabled, OR in a nursing home, OR receiving Social Security Disability.

Aid & Attendance (A&A): This is the most underutilized VA benefit in the entire system. Veterans and surviving spouses who need help with daily activities — bathing, dressing, eating — or who are in assisted living or nursing care may qualify for the A&A enhanced pension rate, which adds roughly $11,600 per year on top of the basic pension. It is not automatic — it must be applied for separately. Hundreds of thousands of eligible veterans and surviving spouses never claim it.

What it is: The Veteran Readiness and Employment program (VR&E), also called Chapter 31, helps veterans with service-connected disabilities prepare for, find, and maintain suitable employment. If your service-connected conditions prevent you from working in your previous field, VR&E can retrain you for an entirely new career. Governed by 38 CFR Part 21, Subpart A.

What VR&E Covers

• Full tuition and fees at the school or training program — no cap equivalent to GI Bill limits.
• Books and supplies.
• Monthly subsistence allowance during training (similar to the GI Bill housing allowance).
• Vocational and career counseling.
• Job placement assistance.
• Independent living services for veterans who cannot work at all.

Eligibility

• Service-connected disability rating of 20% or higher, OR a 10% rating with a serious employment handicap.
• Honorable or other-than-dishonorable discharge.
• Must apply within 12 years of separation or the date of your first VA disability rating, whichever is later.
• Program entitlement is 48 months of full-time training (extendable in certain circumstances).

VR&E vs. GI Bill: VR&E often pays more than the GI Bill because it covers actual tuition costs without a cap and includes additional support services. Veterans who qualify for both should compare carefully. An accredited agent can help you evaluate which serves your specific situation.

What it is: A suite of low-cost life insurance programs designed to provide coverage veterans cannot always obtain affordably on the civilian market due to service-connected health conditions. Programs include SGLI, VGLI, S-DVI, VALife, and FSGLI.

Key Programs

Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI): Automatic coverage up to $500,000 for active-duty members at $0.05 per $1,000 of coverage per month (approximately $25/month for full coverage, plus $1/month for the TSGLI traumatic injury rider). Coverage ends 120 days after separation.

Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI): Converts SGLI coverage to civilian coverage after separation. Must apply within 240 days of separation for guaranteed coverage with no medical underwriting. After 240 days, medical underwriting is required. Premiums are age-based and increase over time.

Veterans Affairs Life Insurance (VALife): Introduced in January 2023 under the PACT Act. Available to veterans with any service-connected disability rating, including 0%. Coverage up to $40,000. No medical underwriting required. The two-year waiting period for full death benefit applies (accidental death is covered from day one).

Family SGLI (FSGLI): Covers the spouse and dependent children of service members with SGLI. Spouse coverage up to $100,000. Dependent child coverage is $10,000 at no cost.

What it is: A set of benefits honoring veterans at the end of life, including burial cost assistance, a free gravesite in a national cemetery, a government-furnished headstone or marker, a burial flag, and military funeral honors. Governed by 38 CFR Part 38.

What the VA Provides (2026 Rates)

• Burial allowance: Up to $2,000 for a service-connected death. Up to $1,002 for a non-service-connected death (if the veteran was receiving VA pension or compensation). Up to $1,002 plot/interment allowance for burial outside a national cemetery. These amounts are not automatic — they must be applied for.
• National Cemetery burial: Veterans, their spouses, and dependent children are eligible for burial in one of 155 national cemeteries at no cost. This includes the gravesite, opening and closing, liner, headstone or marker, and perpetual care.
• Presidential Memorial Certificate: An engraved certificate signed by the President, provided to next of kin of honorably discharged deceased veterans.
• Military Funeral Honors: The Department of Defense provides a funeral honors detail upon request — at minimum a two-person detail to fold and present the flag and play Taps.
• Pre-need eligibility determination: Veterans and their families can apply before death to confirm eligibility for national cemetery burial and avoid uncertainty for surviving family members.

What it is: A collection of programs that extend VA benefits to the spouses, children, and survivors of veterans and service members. The largest and most important is Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC).

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC)

Governed by 38 CFR §3.5 and 38 USC §1310. DIC is a tax-free monthly benefit paid to the surviving spouse, children, or parents of a service member or veteran who died from a service-connected condition, or who was rated totally disabled (100% or TDIU) for a specified period before death.

2026 DIC Base Rate: $1,699.36 per month for an eligible surviving spouse.

DIC Add-Ons That Increase the Monthly Payment

• 8-year provision: If the veteran was rated totally disabled for at least 8 continuous years immediately before death, the surviving spouse receives an additional $360.85 per month.
• Dependent children: Additional $421.00 per child under 18 (or in school under 23).
• Aid & Attendance: Surviving spouse who needs help with daily activities receives an additional $421.00 per month.
• Transitional benefit: For the first two years after the veteran’s death, if there are dependent children, an additional $359.00 per month is added.

Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (Chapter 35, DEA)

Provides up to 36 months of education or training benefits to the spouse and children of veterans who are permanently and totally disabled due to a service-connected condition, or who died in service or from a service-connected condition. The 2025–2026 full-time rate is $1,574 per month.

CHAMPVA

Health insurance coverage for dependents of veterans rated permanently and totally disabled for a service-connected condition. CHAMPVA covers 75% of allowable costs after a $50 per-beneficiary annual deductible ($100 family max). The catastrophic cap is $3,000 per family per year.

The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022, Public Law 117-168, is the largest expansion of VA benefits in decades. Signed on August 10, 2022, it fundamentally changed the rules for toxic-exposure veterans.

What the PACT Act Did, in Plain Language

1. Burn pit and airborne hazard presumptions. Veterans who served in Southwest Asia after August 2, 1990, or in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, or Djibouti after September 11, 2001, or in Somalia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, or Yemen during certain periods, are now presumed to have been exposed to burn pits and airborne hazards. This means the VA can no longer demand individual proof of exposure — the burden of proof shifts. If you have one of the covered conditions and served in one of these locations, the exposure link is automatically accepted.

2. More than 20 new presumptive conditions. The PACT Act added conditions including certain cancers (bladder, head, neck, respiratory, reproductive, melanoma, pancreatic, kidney, and others), constrictive bronchiolitis, constrictive pericarditis, and additional respiratory illnesses linked to burn pit and toxic exposures. Veterans who were previously denied because the VA said their condition was not connected to service should refile under the new presumptions.

3. Five years of free VA health care. Veterans who served in a toxic-exposure location can enroll in VA health care and receive free care for any condition — not just service-connected ones — for up to five years from their date of separation or from the date they enrolled. The key enrollment deadline is October 1, 2027.

4. Vietnam-era herbicide (Agent Orange) expansion. The PACT Act added hypertension and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) to the list of conditions presumptively linked to Agent Orange exposure. These were long-awaited additions that affect hundreds of thousands of Vietnam-era veterans.

5. Radiation-exposed veterans. The Act expanded the definition of “radiation-exposed veteran” to include those who participated in nuclear cleanup operations at Palomares, Spain, and Thule, Greenland, closing a decades-old gap.

6. Toxic Exposure Screening. The VA is now required to screen every veteran enrolled in VA health care for toxic exposures — a change that ensures exposure histories are documented even before a claim is filed.