Disabled Veterans Programs

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO compared disabled veterans’ benefits in the United States with benefits provided by other foreign countries, focusing on differences in: (1) the types and amounts of benefits; (2) eligibility for benefits; and (3) the types of agencies administering programs for disabled veterans. GAO found that: (1) the United States offers several benefits to its veterans, such as life insurance, job assistance, and educational benefits, that most of the other countries do not offer; (2) most countries provide health care for disabled veterans; (3) all the countries have programs that provide cash benefits for service-connected disabilities, but each country uses different criteria to establish eligibility and the amount of compensation; (4) all the countries provide benefits to survivors of veterans who died of service-connected disabilities, but there are differences in eligibility for benefits when the death of these veterans is from nonservice-related causes; (5) most countries require that a disability be closely related to the performance of military duty to qualify for disability benefits; (6) the United States provides benefits for some nonservice-related disabilities; and (7) in general, foreign countries will compensate veterans under many of the same circumstances that the United States will.