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VA RIN: 2900-AP67 Publication ID: Fall 2024 
Title: Apportionments 
Abstract:

This document amends the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulations to limit the circumstances in which benefits will be apportioned and to stop apportioning certain benefits. Currently, in limited situations, VA may pay a portion of a VA beneficiary's monetary benefits directly to the beneficiary's dependents. This is referred to as apportionment of benefits. Most claims for apportionment involve complex issues of family law, issues that are best suited to the expertise and authority of state courts. VA claims adjudicators have limited ability to analyze these complex and fact-intensive claims, to include both technical expertise as well as an ability to compel participation in necessary accounting measures. When VA awards apportionments, decisions rendered can disturb state court support awards , requiring a state court to expend additional resources to revisit a prior determination. Finally, due to their intricacy, a significant amount of information is needed to properly adjudicate apportionment claims. While this information is typically already available to state courts, VA must attempt to gather this information from the VA beneficiary and the beneficiary's dependent, which is unavoidably a time-consuming process and often cannot result in a comprehensive evidentiary procedure. The additional time and effort needed to gather this information increases VA workloads and results in the potential for delays in all VA claim processes, including apportionment awards. Since VA apportionment awards often conflict with the awards of better-situated state family courts and because VA lacks the authority and expertise to make fully-informed, accurate and economically appropriate awards, VA is proposing to amend its regulations to discontinue making apportionment awards in most circumstances and to stop apportioning certain benefits.

 
Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs(VA)  Priority: Substantive, Nonsignificant 
RIN Status: Previously published in the Unified Agenda Agenda Stage of Rulemaking: Final Rule Stage 
Major: No  Unfunded Mandates: No 
CFR Citation: 38 CFR 3.31    38 CFR 3.210    38 CFR 3.252    38 CFR 3.400    38 CFR 3.450 to 3.461    38 CFR 3.556    38 CFR 3.665    38 CFR 3.852    38 CFR 21.330   
Legal Authority: 38 U.S.C. 501(a)    38 U.S.C. 5307    38 U.S.C. 5313    38 U.S.C. 5502    38 U.S.C. 5503    Pub. L. 95-588, sec. 306, 92 Stat. 2497   
Legal Deadline:  None
Timetable:
Action Date FR Cite
NPRM  10/14/2021  86 FR 57084   
NPRM Comment Period End  12/13/2021 
Final Action  05/00/2025 
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required: No  Government Levels Affected: None 
Small Entities Affected: No  Federalism: No 
Included in the Regulatory Plan: No 
RIN Data Printed in the FR: No 
Agency Contact:
Janel Keyes
Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20420
Phone:202 509-1067
Email: janel.keyes@va.gov