HomeVA ProstheticsVA Handbook 1173.15 - Clothing Allowance BenefitEntitlement Criteria

15.5. Entitlement Criteria

VA will pay one or more annual clothing allowance payment(s) to a Veteran: (1) Who has a service-connected disability or a disability compensable under 38 U.S.C. 1151 as if it were service-connected and (2) who meets the clinical eligibility requirements of 38 CFR 3.810. Section 3.810 provides in substance as follows:

   a. One Clothing Allowance. A Veteran is entitled to one annual clothing allowance if: 

   (1) A VA examination or a hospital or examination report from a facility specified in section 3.326(b) establishes that the Veteran, because of a service-connected disability or disabilities due to loss or loss of use of a hand or foot compensable at a rate specified in section 3.350(a), (b), (c), (d), or (f), wears or uses one qualifying prosthetic or orthopedic appliance (including, but not limited to, a wheelchair) which tends to wear or tear clothing; or 

   (2) The Under Secretary for Health, or a designee, certifies that 

   (a) A Veteran, because of a service-connected disability or disabilities, wears or uses one qualifying prosthetic or orthopedic appliance (including, but not limited to, a wheelchair) which tends to wear or tear clothing; or 

   (b) A Veteran uses a skin medication prescribed by a physician for one skin condition, which is due to a service-connected disability that causes irreparable damage to the Veterans outergarments.

    b. More than One Clothing Allowance. A Veteran is entitled to more than one annual clothing allowance if: 

   (1) Multiple types of garments are affected. A Veteran is entitled to an annual clothing allowance for each prosthetic or orthopedic appliance (including, but not limited to, a wheelchair) or skin medication used by the Veteran if each prostheses, appliance or skin medication: 

   (a) Satisfies the requirement of paragraph (a)(1) of section 3.810; and

   (b) Affects a distinct type of article of clothing or outergarment. 

   (2) Single type of garment is affected. A Veteran is entitled to two annual clothing allowances if a Veteran uses more than one prosthetic or orthopedic appliance (including, but not limited to, a wheelchair), skin medication for more than one skin condition, or an prosthetic, orthopedic appliance and a skin medication, and the prostheses, orthopedic appliance(s) or skin medication(s): 

   (a) Each satisfies the requirements of paragraph (a)(1) of section 3.810; and 

   (b) Together tend to wear or tear a single type of article of clothing or irreparably damage a type of outergarment at an increased rate of damage to the clothing or outergarment due to a second orthopedic appliance or skin medication.

   (c) The Under Secretary for Health designee is the Prosthetic Representative. If a clinical determination is required under paragraph 6 of this Handbook, then the Under Secretary for Health designee will be the appropriate clinician (e.g., VHA clinician, Prosthetist, Orthotist, or Pharmacist). To determine that a Veteran is entitled to the allowance, the Under Secretary for Health designee must find and document that: 

   (1) The use of the prosthetic, orthopedic appliance, or skin medication is medically necessitated for a service-connected disability or disabilities; 

   (2) The prosthetic, orthopedic appliance, or skin medication meets the definition in this Handbook; and 

   (3) The prosthetic or orthopedic appliance tends to wear out or tear the clothing of the Veteran and/or the skin medication causes irreparable damage (e.g., permanent irreversible staining, bleeding or damage not removable with laundering or dry cleaning) to the Veteran’s outergarments.

   (d). See Appendix A and examples of prosthetics, appliances, and skin medications that are generally covered in paragraph 8 below.

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