38 CFR § 3.261 - Character of income; exclusions and estates.

The following factors will be considered in determining whether a claimant meets the requirements of §§ 3.250, 3.251 and 3.252 with reference to dependency, income limitations and corpus of estate:

(a) Income.

Income	Dependency (parents)	Dependency and indemnity compensation (parents)	Pension; old-law (veterans, surviving spouses and children)	Pension; section 306 (veterans, surviving spouses and children)	See—
(1) Total income from employment, business, investments, or rents	Included	Included	Included	Included	§ 3.262(a).
(2) Income of spouse	......do	......do	Excluded	......do	§ 3.262(b).
(3) Earnings of members of family under legal age	......do	Excluded	......do	Excluded	§ 3.250(b)(2). § 3.252(e)(3).
(4) Earned income of child-claimant			Included	......do
(5) Gifts, including contributions from adult members of family:
Property	......do	Included	......do	......do	§ 3.262(k).
Money	......do	......do	......do	Included
(6) Value of maintenance by relative, friend, or organization	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	§ 3.262(c).
(7) Rental value of property owned by and resided in by claimant	......do	......do	......do	......do
(8) Charitable donations	......do	......do	Included	......do	§ 3.262(d).
(9) Family allowance authorized by service personnel	Included	Included	......do	Included
(10) Reasonable value of allowances to person in service in addition to base pay	......do	......do	......do	Included except as earned income of child-claimant
(11) Mustering-out pay	Excluded	......do	Excluded	......do
(12) Six-months' death gratuity	......do	Excluded	......do	Excluded
(13) Bonus or similar cash gratuity paid by any State based on service in Armed Forces of United States	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded
(14) Retired Serviceman's Family Protection Plan; Survivor Benefit Plan (10 U.S.C. ch. 73):
Retired Serviceman's Family Protection Plan (Subch. I):
Annuities	......do	......do	......do	......do
Refund (10 U.S.C. 1446)	Included	Included	Included	Included
Survivor Benefit Plan (Subch. II) (Pub. L. 92-425; 86 Stat. 706)	......do	......do	......do	......do	§ 3.262(e).
Annuity under § 653, Pub. L. 100-456	Included	Included	Excluded	Excluded	§ 3.262(r)
(15) Retirement pay received direct from service department	Included ......do	Included ......do	Included ......do	Included ......do	§ 3.262(e). § 3.262(h).
(16) Retirement benefits; general	......do	......do	......do	......do	§ 3.262(e).
(17) Social security benefits:
Old age and survivors', and disability insurance	Included	Included	Included	Included	§ 3.262(f).
Charitable programs	Excluded	Excluded	......do	Excluded
Lump-sum death payments	Included	......do	......do	......do
Supplemental security income	Excluded	Excluded	......do	......do
(18) Railroad Retirement benefits	......do	Included	Disability pension—Excluded Death pension—Included	Included	§ 3.262(g).
(19) Retirement pay waived under Federal statute	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	......do	§ 3.262(h).
(20) Department of Veterans Affairs payments:
Pension	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded
Compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation	......do	......do	......do	......do
World War I adjusted compensation	......do	Included	......do	Included
U.S. Government life insurance or national service life insurance for disability or death, maturity of endowment policies, and dividends, including special and termination dividends	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded
Servicemembers' group life insurance	......do	......do	......do	......do
Veterans' group life insurance	......do	......do	......do	......do
Servicemembers' indemnity	......do	......do	......do	......do
Subsistence allowance (38 U.S.C. ch. 31)	Included	Included	Included	Included
Veterans educational assistance in excess of amounts expended for training (38 U.S.C. ch. 34)	......do	......do	......do	......do
Educational assistance (38 U.S.C. ch. 35)			Excluded	Excluded
Special allowance under 38 U.S.C. 1312(a)	Excluded	Included	......do	Included
Statutory burial allowance	......do	Excluded	......do	Excluded
Accrued	......do	Included, except accrued as reimbursement	......do	Included, except accrued as reimbursement
(21) Compensation (civilian) for injury or death	Included	Included	Included	Included	§ 3.262(i).
(22) Contributions by a public or private employer to a:
Public or private health or hospitalization plan for an active or retired employee	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded
Retired employee as reimbursement for premiums for supplementary medical insurance benefits under the Social Security Program (Pub. L. 91-588; 84 Stat. 1580)	Included	Included	Excluded	Excluded
(23) Overtime pay; Government employees	Included	Included	Disability pension—Excluded. Death pension—Included	Included
(24) Commercial life insurance; disability, accident, or health insurance, less payments of medical or hospital expenses resulting from the accident or disease for which payments are made	Included (as received)	Included (as received)	Included (special provision)	Included (as received)	§ 3.262(j).
(25) Commercial annuities or endowments	......do	Included (special provision)	......do	Included (special provision)	§ 3.262(j).
(26) Dividends from commercial insurance	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded
(27) Insurance under Merchant Marine Act of 1936, as amended	Included	Included	Included	Included
(28) Reimbursement for casualty loss (Pub. L. 100-687)	Included	Excluded	Included	Included	§ 3.262(t)
Other fire Insurance	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	§ 3.262(t)
(29) Bequests, devises and inheritances:
Property	Included	Excluded	Included	......do	§ 3.262(k).
Money	......do	Included	......do	Included
Joint bank accounts	......do	......do	......do	Excluded	§ 3.262(k)(1).
(30) Profit from sale of property	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	§ 3.262(k).
(31) Jury duty or obligatory civic duties	......do	......do	......do	......do
(32) Relocation payments (Pub. L. 90-448; Pub. L. 90-495)	......do	......do	......do	......do	§ 3.262(c).
(33) The following programs administered by the ACTION Agency:
Foster Grandparent Program and Older Americans Community Service Programs payments (Pub. L. 93-29; 87 Stat. 55)	......do	......do	......do	......do	§ 3.262(q)(1).
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), University Year for ACTION (UYA), Program for Local Services (PLS), ACTION Cooperative Volunteers (ACV), Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), and Older American Community Service Programs, Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), Senior Companion Program (Pub. L. 93-113; 87 Stat. 394)	......do	......do	......do	......do	§ 3.262(q)(2).
(34) The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and Active Corps of Executives (ACE) administered by the Small Business Administration. (Pub. L. 93-113; 87 Stat. 394)	......do	......do	......do	......do	§ 3.262(q)(2).
(35) Income received under Section 6 of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (Pub. L. 101-426)	Excluded	Excluded	Included	Included	§ 3.262(t)
(36) Income received from income tax returns	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	§ 3.262(u)
(37) Other amounts excluded from income by statute	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	Excluded	§ 3.262(v) § 3.279

1 The compensation received through a crime victim compensation program will be excluded from income computations unless the total amount of assistance received from all federally funded programs is sufficient to fully compensate the claimant for losses suffered as a result of the crime.

(b) Deduction of amounts paid by claimant.

Deduction	Dependency (parents)	Dependency and indemnity compensation	Pension; old-law (veterans, surviving spouses, and children)	Pension; section 306 (veterans, surviving spouses, and children)	See
(1) Unusual medical expenses	Not authorized	Authorized	Not authorized	Authorized	§§ 3.262(b)(1) and (1).
(2) Veteran: just debts, expenses of last illness and burial	Not authorized	Authorized, except debts	Not authorized	Authorized	§§ 3.262(m) and (o).
(3) Veteran's spouse or child: expenses of last illness and burial	Not authorized	Not authorized	Not authorized	Authorized	§ 3.262(n).
(4) Parent's spouse: just debts; expenses of last illness and burial	Not authorized	Authorized			§ 3.262(o).
(5) Prepayment on real property mortgages after death of spouse (Pub. L. 91-588)	Not authorized	Not authorized	Not authorized	Authorized	§§ 3.262(k)(6).

(c) Corpus of estate.

	Dependency (parents)	Dependency and indemnity compensation	Pension; old-law (veterans, widows, and children)	Pension; section 306 (veterans, surviving spouses, and children)	See
	Considered conditionally	Not considered	Not considered	Considered	§ 3.263.

[28 FR 31, Jan. 1, 1963, as amended at 29 FR 15205, Nov. 11, 1964; 31 FR 15632, Dec. 13, 1966; 33 FR 15286, Oct. 15, 1968; 36 FR 8446, May 6, 1971; 37 FR 6677, Apr. 1, 1972; 37 FR 7092, Apr. 8, 1972; 37 FR 21436, Oct. 11, 1972; 38 FR 872, Jan. 5, 1973; 38 FR 26804, Sept. 26, 1973; 38 FR 28826, Oct. 17, 1973; 40 FR 13305, Mar. 26, 1975; 40 FR 57459, Dec. 10, 1975; 41 FR 17386, Apr. 26, 1976; 42 FR 43834, Aug. 31, 1977; 57 FR 59298, Dec. 15, 1992; 58 FR 12174, Mar. 3, 1993; 58 FR 31909, June 7, 1993; 58 FR 33766, June 21, 1993; 59 FR 37696, July 25, 1994; 60 FR 2522, Jan. 10, 1995; 60 FR 18355, Apr. 11, 1995; 62 FR 51278, Sept. 30, 1997; 67 FR 49586, July 31, 2002; 68 FR 60852, Oct. 24, 2003; 70 FR 15591, Mar. 28, 2005; 76 FR 4248, Jan. 25, 2011; 83 FR 47268, Sept 18, 2018]