Veterans will see a 5.9% increase in key benefit payments beginning Dec. 1.
The increased benefits include compensation and the dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) benefits paid to family members of military personnel who died in the line of duty or from a service-related injury or disease.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Norfolk, tied the cost of living adjustment for those Department of Veterans Affairs benefits to the Social Security Administration’s annual inflation adjustment for its benefits. That increase is based on the increase in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index between the the third quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021, the Social Security Administration said.
Soaring energy prices, including a 24.8 % increase from September 2020 to September 2021, as well as a similar rise in used car prices and a 4.6% increase in the cost of food drove inflation higher this summer.
The increase is the biggest since 1982.
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