otherstate

Apportioned VA Benefits Are Subtracted From Your Child Support

Where an apportioned veterans’ benefit is paid for a child because of the obligor’s eligibility, and the other parent receives it, the amount is subtracted from the obligor’s net child support obligation.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: A dollar-for-dollar reduction in the net support obligation, equal to the benefit the child receives

The size of the reduction is the size of the apportioned benefit, which varies with the rating and the number of dependants. There is no fixed figure to publish.
The subtraction only happens where the benefit is paid because of the obligor’s eligibility and is received by the obligee as representative payee for the child, or by the child attending school.

Who is entitled to it

You are the veteran whose eligibility produces the benefit.
Your home is in Minnesota.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Say it out loud at the hearing. The subtraction is in the statute, but nothing happens unless the court is told the child is receiving an apportioned veterans’ benefit based on your eligibility.
2Expect the benefit to be counted in your gross income first. The statute includes the amount in the gross income of the parent on whose eligibility it is based — that is the half people quote back at veterans, and it is only half the section.
3Then ask for the subtraction. Where the obligee receives it as representative payee for the child, or the child receives it attending school, the same amount comes off your net obligation calculated under §518A.34.
4The same treatment applies to survivors’ and dependents’ educational assistance, which the statute handles in its own paragraphs alongside the apportioned benefit.
5If arrears are in play, raise the lump sum. On a motion to modify, a regular or lump-sum benefit received by the obligee for the child based on your disability before the motion was filed may be used to satisfy arrears for the period it covered — but only if it was not already counted in the previous order.
6Bring the VA paperwork showing the apportionment. The court is matching a benefit to an eligibility, and the letter is what proves the link.

File with: The court handling the child support order
Documents you will need: va benefit summary letter
No renewal: Once granted it does not need renewing.

CorrectionA veteran who reads only paragraph (a) will conclude the benefit is counted against them. Paragraph (c) is the other half: where the other parent actually receives it for the child, the same amount is subtracted from the net obligation. Quoting one paragraph without the other misstates the section.

Worth knowingThe arrears provision in paragraph (e) has a condition that decides cases: it applies only if the derivative benefit was not considered in the guidelines calculation of the previous order. If it was, the lump sum does not clear arrears a second time.

Known gapThis is a description of a statute, not legal advice, and child support turns on facts a benefit finder does not see. Take the section number to a family law attorney or a legal aid clinic before relying on it.

Sources

authority · statuteMinn. Stat. §518A.31 — Social Security or veterans’ benefit payments received on behalf of the child

Why only one source type: The whole rule is in the section — the inclusion in gross income, the subtraction from the net obligation, the treatment of educational assistance and the arrears provision. Minnesota publishes no separate agency guidance on it that we could read this session, and a secondary explainer would add nothing the statute does not already say.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.