At the Veterans Benefits Administration, we often come in contact with people who ask, What are my benefits? What am I eligible for? Or, I receive X benefit, but what other benefits can I use?
Those are hard questions to answer because in many cases, it depends. VA benefits eligibility is based on your character of discharge. And some benefits connections are equally hard to explain without further personal information. But some Veterans become eligible for additional benefits based on a number of different situations. The additional benefits that open up from a given situation is what we call “derivative” benefits.
To better explain this, to ease the understanding between a primary benefit and its derivative benefit(s), we built a Derivative-Benefits Eligibility Matrix on our website. On this webpage, there are three matrices and, depending on which one you click, will lead you to a table where you identify your situation.
The three matrices are very basic: Service-Connected, Non-Service Connected and Circumstance. They’re as simple as they sound. Under Service-Connected, you scroll down the table until you find your service-connected disability rating. The corresponding column that matches with your row lists to a number of VA benefits. These are the derivative benefits. Under Non-Service Connected, you follow the same procedure based on your receipt of a non-service-connected benefit, like Aid & Attendance or Housebound. Examples of situations under the Circumstance matrix include Veteran statuses like Medal of Honor recipient, former prisoner of war and others.
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