The Department of Veterans Affairs now pays $1,621.00 for each full month of full-time study under Chapter 35, the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance program. The new table took effect today, Oct. 1, 2026. Spouses and children who qualify through a veteran’s death or total disability are the only people it covers.
For a student carrying a full course load, the monthly payment is $47 higher than it was a day ago. That figure is the difference between the two rates VA has published, not a number VA itself announced.
Two published tables, one $47 gap
VA’s page for rates effective Oct. 1, 2026 lists $1,621.00 for full-time enrollment at an institution of higher learning or a trade or vocational school. The page was last updated Aug. 12, 2026. The table it replaces, effective Oct. 1, 2025 and running through Sept. 30, 2026, listed $1,574.00 for each full month.
Subtracting one from the other gives $47.00 a month, or about 2.99 percent. Both the $47 and the percentage are arithmetic on those two published figures. VA’s pages do not describe the change in either term, and the department attributes no statement about it to any named official on the rate pages themselves.
Over a 36-month entitlement, the maximum VA lists for training that begins on or after Aug. 1, 2018, the $47 difference adds up to $1,692 for a student who is enrolled full-time in every month. That total assumes full-time status throughout and uses only the two published monthly rates.
What part-time students receive under the new table
Most of the program’s recipients do not attend full-time every month, so the lower rungs of the table matter. VA’s new schedule for schools lists these monthly amounts:
- Three-quarter time: $1,281.00, up from $1,244.00
- Half time: $939.00, up from $912.00
- Less than half time but more than one-quarter: $939.00, or the cost of tuition and fees, whichever is less
- One-quarter time or less: $405.25, or tuition and fees, whichever is less, compared with $393.50 in the expiring table
The raises on those rows, by simple subtraction, are $37 at three-quarter time and $27 at half time. The “whichever is less” language means a student taking a single inexpensive course cannot receive more than the school actually charges.
On-the-job training and apprenticeships follow a separate table that steps down over time. Months 1 through 6 pay $1,029.00 (previously $999.00), months 7 through 12 pay $774.00, months 13 through 18 pay $508.00, and anything past 19 months pays $259.00. VA’s page notes that recipients must work at least 120 hours a month to receive full payments.
Who counts as a survivor or dependent
The rates page describes the program as serving survivors or dependents of veterans with a permanent and total service-connected disability, and children or spouses of service members who died on active duty. VA’s eligibility page, updated Sept. 22, 2026, spells out the qualifying events. The veteran or service member must be permanently and totally disabled by a service-connected condition, have died of a service-connected cause or in the line of duty, have been missing in action or captured for more than 90 days, or have been forcibly detained by a foreign entity for more than 90 days. Hospitalization for a permanent and total service-connected disability also qualifies.
Children may be married or unmarried. A child who enters the military cannot draw the benefit during active duty and cannot have a dishonorable discharge. For children who became eligible before Aug. 1, 2023, VA requires the student to be 18 or to hold a high school diploma or GED, with up to eight years of use before age 26; for those who became eligible on or after Aug. 1, 2023, the page lists no age requirement and no time limit.
Spouses can receive Chapter 35 and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation at the same time. A spouse who has divorced or remarried generally loses eligibility, with a narrow exception for remarriage after Jan. 1, 2004 at age 57 or older. Time limits for spouses run 10 years from eligibility in most older cases and 20 years when the service member died on active duty, and they do not apply when the qualifying event came on or after Aug. 1, 2023.
Months of entitlement and the form that starts a claim
VA lists up to 36 months of training for programs that began on or after Aug. 1, 2018, and up to 45 months for earlier starts. A child cannot draw Chapter 35 and the Fry Scholarship at the same time, and a spouse must choose between the two. The application is VA Form 22-5490, which the eligibility page says can be sent by mail or filed online.
Because the rate is paid per month of enrollment, the table in force during a given month sets the payment for that month. Study that straddles Oct. 1 therefore draws from the expiring table through Sept. 30 and from the new one afterward, a point worth confirming against the school’s certification to VA, since the school reports enrollment status that VA’s table then prices.
A survivor’s education benefit and the pension question beside it
Chapter 35 pays for school, and it is a separate program from VA pension, which is a different benefit with its own rules and its own application. A household sorting out education paperwork for a surviving spouse or child still has the separate pension question to settle.
The Veterans Benefits Action Kit is a 10-page kit that lays out the three VA pension levels, including Aid & Attendance, how to file for free with VA Form 21P-527EZ, and a claim tracker, with no coverage of education benefits.
Open the Veterans Benefits Action Kit to see the pension levels and the claim tracker →
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
