Special Monthly Compensation Benefits
Special Monthly Compensation Benefits
Service-connected injuries can significantly affect your daily life. However, the VA has recognized that for some injuries, the impact is so severe that you may need extra assistance with everyday tasks or lifelong accommodations for your disability.
To help veterans who have suffered the loss of certain organs or body parts, are housebound, or who are extremely disabled, the VA provides Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) benefits in addition to service-connected schedular VA disability benefits. The additional SMC benefits are meant both to compensate the veteran for the extreme disability and to help the veteran afford the additional care necessary as a result of the disability.
Who Is Eligible?
SMC benefits are available for veterans whose injuries fall into certain categories. These conditions include, but are not limited to, the loss of a limb, an organ, or a sense (like deafness or blindness). SMC may also be warranted when the veteran suffers from a condition that requires constant care and assistance or causes the veteran to be housebound, which is often an important part of veterans benefits claims.
The VA is required to proactively consider entitlement to SMC whenever the record establishes that a veteran may qualify for this benefit. However, the VA often fails to identify or address SMC eligibility; thus, veterans should research for themselves whether they may be eligible for SMC benefits and proactively alert the VA to their SMC claim.
A veteran’s SMC rating will be determined by the VA. Veterans who are eligible for SMC payments are assigned a letter from K through T based on the nature of their condition(s). The later in the alphabet your letter group is, the more severe your injuries are considered to be.
Here is a little information on each type of SMC benefit. For more detailed information, you can review the VA’s website here or the Statute here.
- SMC-K is assigned where the veteran has suffered from one of the following:
- Anatomical loss or loss of use of one or more creative organs, or one foot, or one hand, or both buttocks;
- Blindness of one eye or having only light perception;
- Complete organic aphonia with constant inability to communicate by speech;
- Deafness of both ears;
- Having absence of air and bone conduction; or
- For women, the anatomical loss of 25 percent or more of tissue from a single breast or both breasts in combination (including loss by mastectomy or partial mastectomy) or radiation treatment of breast tissue.
- SMC Levels L through O are assigned for the following situations or combinations:
- The amputation of 1 or more limbs or extremities;
- The loss of use of 1 or more limbs or extremities (meaning you have no effective function remaining);
- The physical loss of 1 or both eyes;
- The loss of sight or total blindness in 1 or both eyes;
- Being permanently bedridden (unable to get out of bed); or
- Needing daily help with basic needs (like eating, dressing, and bathing), also known as “Aid and Attendance.”
- SMC Levels P and Q are assigned rarely, to very extreme conditions. For example, SMC-P applies when a veteran suffers from anatomical loss or loss of use, or a combination of anatomical loss and loss of use, of three extremities.
- SMC-R may apply if you need daily help, or Aid and Attendance, from another person for basic needs (like dressing, eating, and bathing).
- SMC-S may apply if you are housebound because of your service-connected disabilities. The VA may find that you are “housebound” in one of two ways. First, you may be eligible for SMC-S housebound benefits if you have a single service-connected disability rated as totally disabling and additional service-connected disabilities that are independently rated at 60 percent. The VA often misses this benefit in assessing TDIU claims, so it is important to raise this claim if the facts allow. Second, you may receive this benefit if you are permanently housebound, meaning: (1) you are “substantially confined” to your dwelling or immediate premises as a direct result of service-connected disabilities; and (2) it is reasonably certain that the disability will continue throughout your lifetime.
- SMC-T may apply if you need the aid of another person for daily living as a result of a service-connected Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
How Do I Calculate My SMC Benefits?
Veterans eligible for SMC will receive additional compensation depending on the level of SMC that applies and their dependency status.
To view the amount of compensation you could receive each month, visit the VA’s compensation rate tables and view the tables for your SMC or disability rating. Remember that your payment rate will change if you are married or have dependents.
How Do I Apply?
As part of the VA’s duty to maximize benefits, the VA is required to address eligibility to SMC benefits when the facts support entitlement. If the veteran is eligible for SMC benefits, these benefits will then be awarded in addition to VA schedular disability benefits. However, the VA often fails to address entitlement to SMC benefits, which is why consulting a veterans disability attorney can help ensure that all potential benefits are properly considered. Thus, it is important for veterans to know about these benefits, ask about SMC during hearings and in correspondence with the VA, and include SMC in the claim and appeal filings to ensure that the VA addresses SMC entitlement.
If the VA denied your claim for SMC benefits, failed to address entitlement to SMC benefits, or your circumstances now warrant eligibility consideration, Vets National Advocates can help you contact your local VA regional office and navigate the appeal process.
Contact us to appeal your VA disability claim denials now!
Has the VA failed to address whether you are entitled to SMC benefits or wrongly denied your claim for SMC benefits? We are here to help you appeal! Contact us to reach our advocates today, or call 1 (877) 777-4021 to take the next step in obtaining the VA disability benefits you deserve.
