{"id":100,"date":"2013-12-10T19:19:35","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T19:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/?p=100"},"modified":"2013-12-10T19:20:51","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T19:20:51","slug":"va-announces-1-5-cola-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/2013\/12\/10\/va-announces-1-5-cola-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"VA Announces 1.5% COLA Increase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><strong><em>New Rates for Compensation and Pension Benefits in 2014 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2013 Veterans, their families and survivors receiving disability compensation and pension benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs will receive a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase in their monthly payments beginning Jan. 1, 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re pleased there will be another cost-of-living increase for Veterans, their families and their survivors,\u201d said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. \u201cThe increase expresses in a tangible way our Nation\u2019s gratitude for the sacrifices made by our service-disabled and wartime Veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, payments will not be rounded down to the nearest dollar.\u00a0 Until this year, that was required by law.\u00a0 Veterans and survivors will see additional cents included in their monthly compensation benefit payment.<\/p>\n<p>For Veterans without dependents, the new compensation rates will range from $130.94 monthly for a disability rated at 10 percent to $2,858.24 monthly for 100 percent.\u00a0 The full rates are available on the Internet at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.benefits.va.gov\/compensation\/rates-index.asp\">www.benefits.va.gov\/compensation\/rates-index.asp<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The COLA increase also applies to disability and death pension recipients, survivors receiving dependency and indemnity compensation, disabled Veterans receiving automobile and clothing allowances, and other benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Under federal law, cost-of-living adjustments for VA\u2019s compensation and pension must match those for Social Security benefits.\u00a0 The last adjustment was in January 2013 when the Social Security benefits rate increased 1.7 percent.<\/p>\n<p>In fiscal year 2013, VA provided over $59 billion in compensation benefits to nearly 4 million Veterans and survivors, and over $5 billion in pension benefits to more than 515,000 Veterans and survivors.<\/p>\n<p>For Veterans and separating Servicemembers who plan to file an electronic disability claim, VA urges them to use the joint DoD\/VA online portal, <em>eBenefits. <\/em>\u00a0Registered <em>eBenefits<\/em> users with a premium account can file a claim online, track the status, and access a variety of other benefits, including pension, education, health care, home loan eligibility, and vocational rehabilitation and employment programs.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about VA benefits, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.benefits.va.gov\/\">www.benefits.va.gov<\/a>, or call 1-800-827-1000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Rates for Compensation and Pension Benefits in 2014 WASHINGTON \u2013 Veterans, their families and survivors receiving disability compensation and pension benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs will receive a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase in their monthly payments beginning Jan. 1, 2014. \u201cWe\u2019re pleased there will be another cost-of-living increase for Veterans, their families&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/2013\/12\/10\/va-announces-1-5-cola-increase\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172503],"tags":[172496],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information","tag-cola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/veterans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}