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Title 38, Veterans' BenefitsRelease 119-102

§5120 Payment of Benefits; Delivery

Title 38 › PART IV — GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS › CHAPTER 51 — CLAIMS, EFFECTIVE DATES, AND PAYMENTS › SUBCHAPTER III — PAYMENT OF BENEFITS › § 5120

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must certify money payments for benefits and normally pay them by checks drawn for payment by the Treasurer. Checks do not need extra receipts unless the Secretary thinks one is needed. Checks are mailed to the payee’s last known address and are forwarded if the payee filed a change-of-address with the Postal Service. Envelopes must tell postal workers to forward the mail if the person moved and to return it with the date of death if the person is dead. Postal workers must not deliver these benefit checks to someone who is dead, or to a surviving spouse who the worker believes has remarried, unless the mail is addressed in the spouse’s new name. Returned mail must say why and give the date of death or remarriage if known, and checks returned for those reasons are canceled. The Secretary may, under an agreement with the Department of the Treasury and on written request, pay by other means instead of checks. When the first day of a month falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or a legal public holiday (see section 6103 of title 5), the Secretary should, when possible, certify payments so they arrive by the prior Friday or the weekday before the holiday. The Secretary must also set up ways to deliver payments to people who have no mailing address.

Full Legal Text

Title 38, §5120

Veterans' Benefits, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Monetary benefits under laws administered by the Secretary shall be paid by checks drawn, pursuant to certification by the Secretary, in such form as to protect the United States against loss, and payable by the Treasurer of the United States. Such checks shall be payable without separate vouchers or receipts except in any case in which the Secretary may consider a voucher necessary for the protection of the Government. Such checks shall be transmitted by mail to the payee thereof at the payee’s last known address and, if the payee has moved and filed a regular change of address notice with the United States Postal Service, shall be forwarded to the payee. The envelope or cover of each such checks shall bear on the face thereof the following notice: “POSTMASTER: PLEASE FORWARD if addressee has moved and filed a regular change-of-address notice. If addressee is deceased, return the letter with date of death, if known.”
(b)Postmasters, delivery clerks, letter carriers, and all other postal employees are prohibited from delivering any mail addressed by the United States and containing any such check to any person whomsoever if such person has died or in the case of a surviving spouse, if the postal employee believes that the surviving spouse has remarried (unless the mail is addressed to the surviving spouse in the name the surviving spouse has acquired by the remarriage). The preceding sentence shall apply in the case of checks in payment of benefits other than pension, compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, and insurance, only insofar as the Secretary deems it necessary to protect the United States against loss.
(c)Whenever mail is not delivered because of the prohibition of subsection (b), such mail shall be returned forthwith by the postmaster with a statement of the reason for so doing, and if because of death or remarriage, the date thereof, if known. Checks returned under this subsection because of death or remarriage shall be canceled.
(d)Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, pursuant to an agreement with the Department of the Treasury under which the Secretary certifies such benefits for payment, monetary benefits under laws administered by the Secretary may be paid other than by check upon the written request of the person to whom such benefits are to be paid, if such noncheck payment is determined by the Secretary to be in the best interest of such payees and the management of monetary benefits programs by the Department.
(e)Whenever the first day of any calendar month falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal public holiday (as defined in section 6103 of title 5), the Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable, certify benefit payments for such month in such a way that such payments will be delivered by mail, or transmitted for credit to the payee’s account pursuant to subsection (d) of this section, on the Friday immediately preceding such Saturday or Sunday, or in the case of a legal holiday, the weekday (other than Saturday) immediately preceding such legal public holiday, notwithstanding that such delivery or transmission of such payments is made in the same calendar month for which such payments are issued.
(f)(1)In the case of a payee who does not have a mailing address, payments of monetary benefits under laws administered by the Secretary shall be delivered under an appropriate method prescribed pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subsection.
(2)The Secretary shall prescribe an appropriate method or methods for the delivery of payments of monetary benefits under laws administered by the Secretary in cases described in paragraph (1) of this subsection. To the maximum extent practicable, such method or methods shall be designed to ensure the delivery of payments in such cases.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1991—Pub. L. 102–40 renumbered section 3020 of this title as this section. Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator” in two places. Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(a)(1), substituted “administered by the Secretary” for “administered by the Veterans’ Administration”. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator”. Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator” in two places. Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(a)(3), (4), substituted “Department” for “Veterans’ Administration” before period at end. Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(a)(1), substituted “administered by the Secretary” for “administered by the Veterans’ Administration”. Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator”. Subsec. (f)(1). Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(a)(1), substituted “administered by the Secretary” for “administered by the Veterans’ Administration”. Subsec. (f)(2). Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator”. Pub. L. 102–83, § 4(a)(1), substituted “administered by the Secretary” for “administered by the Veterans’ Administration”. 1986—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 99–576, § 701(65)(A), substituted “the payee’s” for “his”, and “the payee” for “he” and “him” in third sentence. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 99–576, § 701(65)(B), substituted “such person” for “he”, “surviving spouse” for “widow”, “the surviving spouse” for “she” in two places, “to the surviving spouse” for “to her”, and “by the” for “by her” in first sentence. Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 99–570 added subsec. (f). 1982—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 97–295 substituted “United States Postal Service” for “Post Office Department”. 1977—Pub. L. 95–117, § 402(b)(1), struck out “by check” after “benefits” in section catchline. Subsecs. (d), (e). Pub. L. 95–117, § 402(a), added subsecs. (d) and (e).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1986 Amendment Pub. L. 99–570, title XI, § 11007(b)(2), Oct. 27, 1986, 100 Stat. 3207–170, provided that: “The amendment made by subsection (a)(2) [amending this section] shall take effect with respect to payments made on or after October 1, 1986.”

Effective Date

of 1977 Amendment Pub. L. 95–117, title IV, § 402(c), Oct. 3, 1977, 91 Stat. 1066, provided that: “The

Amendments

made by this section [amending this section] shall be effective on the date of enactment of this Act [Oct. 3, 1977].”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

38 U.S.C. § 5120

Title 38, Veterans' Benefits

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102