Advocates press Congress to let surviving spouses remarry without losing VA benefits
Summary
TAPS and other witnesses told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee that survivors face financial hardship and stigma under current law and urged passage of the Love Lives On Act and related measures to raise Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) and protect survivors from predatory claims representatives.
Survivor advocates told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee that federal benefits rules force many surviving spouses into impossible choices between financial stability and remarriage.
Ashlyn Hancock Lohman, Director of Government and Legislative Affairs for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), told senators the Love Lives On Act seeks to eliminate a rule that causes many surviving spouses to lose benefits if they remarry before age 55. "Honor and sacrifice do not come with an expiration date, and neither should our nation support," she said.
Why it matters: TAPS and other witnesses said the rule disproportionately affects younger surviving spouses who may be in their mid‑20s to mid‑30s and who often lack established careers or retirement savings. TAPS provided committee figures: "Just over 500,000 surviving spouses receive benefits through the VA, but barely 35,000 of them are under the age of 55. That is less than 7 percent. Of those 35,000 surviving spouses, only 5 percent of them have chosen to legally remarry," Lohman said.
The witnesses urged several changes: enactment of the Love Lives On Act removing the remarriage age restriction, passage of the Caring for Survivors Act to increase DIC (the testimony cited an average increase of $454 per month under a proposed change), and the Veterans Claims Act to increase oversight of paid claims representatives working with survivors.
TAPS also described experiences in which survivors who did remarry or were living with new partners submitted paperwork to the VA and later received overpayment notices or debt collection letters because the agency's processing lagged. "They believe if they turn the paperwork into the VA, they've done their due diligence," Lohman said. "And then they get these debt letters stating ... we never processed your paperwork or it took us 2 years to actually stop the payments resulting in a debt on the survivor that debt has to be paid back."
Several witnesses noted statutory changes already enacted in the last Congress — including portions of the Elizabeth Dole Act — and urged clearer outreach from the VA so survivors know which benefits and education entitlements have changed. Members asked the VA panel about outreach; VA officials said field offices conduct survivor outreach events and provide notifications to survivors in some cases but did not point to a centralized, nationwide outreach program specifically for all post‑Elizabeth Dole Act changes.
Next steps: TAPS and other survivor advocates asked senators to move the Love Lives On and Caring for Survivors bills and to ensure survivors receive clear information from the VA. Senators on both sides of the dais praised survivors who testified and asked VA officials to work with advocates on outreach and to expedite processing to avoid retroactive debt notices.
