Citation Nr: 18161170 Decision Date: 12/28/18 Archive Date: 12/28/18 DOCKET NO. 16-43 068 DATE: December 28, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to accrued benefits is denied. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran’s spouse did not have any pending claims for benefits at the time of her death. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to accrued benefits have not been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 101(4), 5101(a), 5121 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.57, 3.1000 (2018). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from February 1943 to December 1945. The Veteran died in June 1993. He was neither service-connected for any disabilities nor had any pending claims at the time of his death. The Veteran’s spouse died in January 2016. She had no pending claims at the time of her death. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a March 2016 decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Pension Management Center Regional Office (RO). This decision denied a February 2016 claim filed by the appellant, the adult son of the Veteran and his deceased wife, for reimbursement for his mother’s medical expenses. The Board notes that “accrued benefits” are defined as periodic monetary benefits authorized under laws administered by VA, to which a payee was entitled at his or her death under existing ratings or decisions or those based on evidence in a file at the date of death, and are due and unpaid. 38 U.S.C. § 5121 (2012); 38 C.F.R. § 3.1000 (2018). For a claimant to prevail on an accrued benefits claim, the record must show the following: (i) the individual has standing to file a claim for accrued benefits; (ii) the VA payee had a claim pending at the time of death; (iii) the VA payee would have prevailed on the claim if he or she had not died; and (iv) the claim for accrued benefits was filed one year of the VA payee’s death. 38 U.S.C. §§ 5121, 5101(a) (2012); 38 C.F.R. § 3.1000 (2018); Jones v. West, 136 F.3d 1299 (Fed. Cir. 1998). Upon the death of a surviving spouse, accrued benefits are payable only to the Veteran’s qualifying children. 38 C.F.R. § 3.1000(a)(2) (2018). Otherwise, in all other cases, only so much of the accrued benefit may be paid as may be necessary to reimburse the person who bore the expense of last sickness or burial. 38 U.S.C. § 5121(a)(6) (2012). For VA purposes, the term “child” is defined as an unmarried person under the age of 18. The only exceptions to this rule are if the child is a student at a VA-approved educational institution, in which case the age limit is 23 years old, or the child became permanently incapable of self-support before reaching the age of 18, in which case there is no age limit. 38 U.S.C. § 101(4) (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.57, 3.1000 (2018). Here, the Board finds that the appellant’s claim for entitlement to accrued benefits fails as a matter of law. Initially, a review of the record reflects that every year the Veteran’s spouse would seek medical reimbursements. However, the Veteran’s spouse did not submit a claim for reimbursement of her medical expenses in 2015. The appellant submitted a claim for medical reimbursements on behalf of his mother for her 2015 medical expenses after her death in February 2016. This medical reimbursement claim was submitted at the same time as the claim for accrued benefits. Significantly, therefore, at the time of the appellant’s mother’s death, there was no pending claim before VA. Accordingly, because the record reflects that the Veteran’s spouse did not have any type of claim pending at the time of her death, there are no possible accrued benefits that could be paid to the appellant, and his claim for accrued benefits must therefore be denied. As this claim must be denied as a matter of law, the benefit of the doubt rule cannot be applied. Sabonis v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 426, 430 (1994). THERESA M. CATINO Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD S. Imam, Associate Counsel