Combat veteran benefits: obtaining the status and defending it

What is happening

Combat veteran status carries not one benefit but a set of them: a pension supplement, reliefs on tax and housing charges, priority medical care, and additional leave. All of it takes effect only once the certificate has been issued.

Refusals rest on documents. The commission asks for the extract from the order posting you to the combat zone, a certificate of actual participation, and records of a wound or a decoration. Units are reorganised, papers go to the archive, and the confirmation has to be reconstructed from scratch.

A separate dispute arises when the certificate exists but the benefit is still withheld: the tax office does not apply the relief, the management company does not calculate the discount, the pension authority does not pay the supplement. Here the argument is not about the status but about giving effect to it.

What the law says

• The categories of combat veterans and their benefits are set out in Articles 3 and 16 of Federal Law No. 5-FZ of 12 January 1995 on Veterans. The list of benefits is federal, and a region may add its own.
• The certificate is issued by the ministry in which the person served, on a decision of its own commission. The basis is documentary evidence of actual participation in combat operations, not the mere fact of serving during that period.
• Participation is confirmed by extracts from orders, certificates from the military unit, entries in the service record book, and documents on wounds and decorations.
• A refusal by the commission is issued in writing and can be challenged in court. The court assesses the documents itself and may find participation established.
• The pension supplement and the tax reliefs are applied once the certificate is produced. Where it is obtained later, the question of payment for the past period arises.

What we do

• We establish which documents your particular period and ministry require, and what is missing from the set.
• We send advocate's requests to military units, archives and medical institutions.
• We prepare the application to the commission for the certificate, with a complete set of attachments.
• We challenge a written refusal in court and prove the fact of participation in combat operations.
• We pursue the benefits once the status is granted: pension recalculation, tax relief, and reliefs on housing charges.
• We help relatives establish the status of a serviceman who has died, so that their own benefits can follow.

What we need from you

• Your service record book or contract, and extracts from the orders on posting and on removal from the unit's rolls.
• Certificates from the military unit on participation in combat operations, if any were issued.
• Documents on a wound: the wound certificate, the discharge summary, and the military medical board's findings.
• Documents on decorations and commendations for the period of participation.
• The commission's written refusal, if you already have it.
• The veteran's certificate, where the dispute is not about the status but about the benefit itself.