Pension is a benefit paid to wartime veterans who have limited or no income, and who are age 65 or older, or if under 65, who are permanently and totally disabled. Generally, you may be eligible if:
• You were discharged from service under conditions other than dishonorable,
• And you served at least 90 days of active duty military service, one day of which was during a wartime period.
If you entered active duty after Sept. 7, 1980, generally you must have served 24 months or the full period for which called or ordered to active duty (there are exceptions to this rule); and
• Your countable family income is below a yearly limit set by law (the yearly limit on income is set by Congress); and you are age 65 or older;
• Or you are permanently and totally disabled, not due to your own willful misconduct.
Veterans Affairs also provides pensions to low-income surviving spouses and unmarried children of deceased veterans with wartime service.
To be eligible, a spouse must not have married and children must be under age 18, or under age 23 if attending a VA-approved school, or have become permanently incapable of self-support because of disability before age 18.
Children who become incapable of self-support because of a disability before age 18 may be eligible for the death pension as long as the condition exists, unless the child marries or the child’s income exceeds the applicable limit.
A surviving spouse may be entitled to a higher income limit if living in a nursing home, in need of the air and attendance of another person, or permanently housebound.
Feel free to contact your Rowan County Veteran Service Officers. We are here to help.
Ricky Johnson, an Air Force veteran, is one of the county’s Veteran Services officers now located at 1120 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. Contact him at 704-216-8138 or email Ricky.Johnson@RowanCountyNC.Gov.