House Committee on Veterans' Affairs

Persian Gulf

World War II

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VA Benefits for former POWs
and their survivors

Former Prisoners of War

For purposes of disability compensation, Congress has recognized that certain diseases are associated with a former POW's captivity. A former POW must be diagnosed with one or more of the following diseases to a degree of at least 10 percent disabling:

The presumption of association is made for several conditions regardless of the length of captivity:  

• Psychosis
• Dysthymic disorder, or depressive neurosis
• Post-traumatic osteoarthritis
• Any of the Anxiety States
• Organic residuals of frostbite
• Heart disease or hypertensive vascular disease and their complications
• Stroke and residuals of stroke

For internment of 30 days or more, the following conditions are presumed to be service-connected.

• Avitaminosis
• Chronic Dysentery
• Helminthiasis
• Malnutrition, including associated Optic Atrophy deficiency
• Peptic Ulcer Disease
• Beriberi
• Cirrhosis of the Liver
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Pellagra and any other nutritional deficiency
• Peripheral Neuropathy, except where directly related to infectious causes

Spouses of veterans who die as a result of service-connected disabilities may be eligible for dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Public Law 106-117, authorized DIC to those surviving spouses of certain former prisoners of war.  These include those who had died from non-service-connected causes if the former POW was rated totally disabled due to any service-connected cause for a period of one or more years (rather than 10 or more years) immediately prior to death.

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