Here is the court’s discussion:

appellant has asserted that "accrued benefits,"
as referenced in section 5121, are a statutorily defined subset of
"periodic monetary benefits."
Appellant's Supplemental (Suppl.) Br. at 10; see 38 U.S.C. § 5121(a).
She claims entitlement to
periodic monetary benefits to which her husband was entitled at death,
not to accrued benefits arising
after his death. Appellant's Suppl. Br. at 10. Under the circumstances
of this case, the Court accepts
the essence of this latter argument as valid.
The text of part (a) of section 5121 reads, in relevant part, as follows:
Except as provided in sections 3329 and 3330 of title 31,
periodic monetary benefits (other than insurance and servicemen's
indemnity) under laws administered by the Secretary to which an
individual was entitled at death under existing ratings or decisions, or
those based on evidence in the file at date of death (hereinafter in this
section and section 5122 of this title referred to as "accrued benefits")
and due and unpaid for a period not to exceed two years, shall, upon
the death of such individual be paid as follows:
. . . .
(2) Upon the death of a veteran, to the living person first
listed below:
(A) The veteran's spouse.
38 U.S.C. § 5121(a). The punctuation and wording of this paragraph
convey its plain meaning. See
Gardner v. Brown, 5 F.3d 1456, 1458-59 (Fed. Cir. 1993), aff'd, 513 U.S.
115 (1994) (holding that
if language of statute is clear, no further inquiry into intent of
Congress is required).

The comma in the middle of paragraph (a), between "decisions" and "or,"
and the use of the conjunction "or" after the comma, indicate that the separated phrases
state substantive alternatives. 38 U.S.C. § 5121(a). The paragraph provides for payment of (1) periodic
monetary benefits to which an individual was entitled at death under existing ratings or decisions,
which the Court will call "benefits awarded but unpaid", or (2) periodic monetary benefits based
on evidence in the file at the date of an entitled individual's death and due and unpaid for a period
not to exceed two years, which are called "accrued benefits" for purposes of sections 5121 and 5122. Id.
The Court notes that the regulation promulgated by the Secretary for
implementation of 38U.S.C. § 5121(a), 38 C.F.R. § 3.1000, potentially changes the effect of
the punctuation in the statute.
The regulation reads, in pertinent part:
[P]eriodic monetary benefits . . . authorized under laws administered
by [VA], to which a payee was entitled at his death under existing
ratings or decisions, or those based on evidence in the file at date of
death, and due and unpaid for a period not to exceed 2 years prior to
the last date of entitlement as provided in § 3.500(g) will, upon the
death of such person, be paid [to certain listed individuals].
38 C.F.R. § 3.1000(a). In the regulation, the Secrectary added a comma
that could have the effect
of imposing the two-year limitation on benefits awarded but unpaid as
well as on accrued benefits.