Wong asks about proving marriage relationships for surviving spouses
Wong asks about proving marriage relationships for surviving spouses when paperwork may not exist. Noah confirms this is a challenge and that cases are very individualistic depending on factors like length of cohabitation and age. Nicole notes DVS is not aware of any surviving spouses denied benefits.
But are they eligible for the same benefits as other surviving spouses?
Typically, yes.
But very nuanced.
Everything's individualistic depending on sometimes as much as age of the veteran or when they died, things like that.
But typically, yes.
And if I could just jump in right now, our agency is currently not aware of any surviving spouses that were denied benefits.
Okay.
Thank you.
You do need to provide marriage type of relationships to prove that you're a surviving spouse.
Because a lot of these relationships, they may not even be paperwork that may back this up.
That's correct.
And that's what goes back into the factors of like on the individual case, because there's so many things that are involved with like the length of time they live together or the age of, let's say, if you're looking for education benefits for the children alive, it's very case specific.
Okay.
Okay, thank you, Joe.