Caring for Survivors Act of 2025

Key Points

• Surviving spouses of veterans who died from service-related causes would see their monthly payment rise from a fixed dollar amount to 55 percent of the top disability compensation rate, which works out to more money for most families.
• The bill lowers the disability-duration requirement for survivor benefits from 10 years to 5 years, so more families of veterans who were totally disabled before death can qualify.
• Families of veterans disabled between 5 and 10 years would get a partial payment sized to how long the veteran was rated disabled, instead of getting nothing as under current law.
• The new, higher payment amount would not start until six months after the bill is signed into law.
• Survivors of veterans who died before 1993 are guaranteed to receive whichever is higher, their old benefit amount or the new one, so this group won't lose money under the change.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.