VA Pension Highlights
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Get the facts about VA Pension by signing up for our free online VA Pension Learning Center. More...
Service Requirements
The veteran must have served at least one day during a time of war. This is the first consideration for eligibility. More...
How Pension helps Wartime Veterans get needed care
Millions of wartime veterans struggle to pay for care for themselves or for their spouse. VA Pension can help. More…
Understanding how the VA rules affect future Medicaid eligibility
The eligibility rules for Medicaid are different than VA Pension and you should know about the "Medicaid Bomb" ticking for unwary pension applicants. More…
How Veterans Pension Helps
VA Pension Aid and Attendance can make a tremendous difference...for those who know about it!
Largely unknown, the Aid and Attendance (A&A) benefit provides monthly benefits for Veterans and surviving spouses who need help eating, bathing, dressing, undressing or taking care of the needs of nature. It also includes those who are blind or are in a nursing home because of mental or physical incapacity. Assisted care in an assisted living facility also qualifies.
This important benefit is overlooked by many families with Veterans (married or single) or surviving spouses who need financial help to care for ailing parents or loved ones. This is a "pension benefit" and is not dependent upon service-related injuries for compensation. It is part of the VA's Improved Pension program.
Aid and Attendance can help pay for care in the home, nursing home or assisted living facility. A Veteran is eligible for up to $1,554 per month, while a surviving spouse is eligible for up to $998 per month. A couple is eligible for up to $1,842 per month. (These are 2008 figures and increase annually.)
The Aid and Attendance Benefit is the top level of the VA program called Improved Pension. The other two levels are Basic and Housebound. Each level has its own level of benefits and qualifications.
Even if you don't qualify for the highest pension, the Aid and Attendance benefit, VetPension.com urges you to consider whether you could qualify for another level of Pension. We have prepared a Beginners Guide to VA Pension, which you may find helpful and is in our free Members Only Section. There is no charge for joining VetPension.com and you will gain access to other helpful information. The Beginners Guide clearly explains the Improved Pension program, its levels of benefits and the qualifications for each.
Example of how VA Pension can help
Veterans over age 65 and/or their survivors can qualify for this benefit by needing additional care at home or in assisted/supportive living. They only need to prove that their net income after out-of-pocket medical expenses are under the VA cap, and that they qualify under the asset limitation rules. There is no requirement for having a service-related disability. For veterans and their surviving spouses, the VA Pension can provide significant help in paying for care costs at home and in Assisted Living. In particular, Aid and Attendance can allow the veteran (or his/her spouse) to remain at home longer, or to remain longer in Assisted Living without exhausting life savings. For example, consider this situation. A veteran over age 65 and his wife are living at home and they are doing the best they can to get by without getting care in the home for the veteran because they are worried about money. The veteran has Alzheimer's to the degree where he can be at home but his wife must be on constant guard and ready to assist him at all times, day and night. She is getting worn out and if she doesn't get help soon her health will decline to the point where she won't be able to care for herself or or her husband. At that point, both of them will be leaving home to move to an assisted living or nursing home. They both want to stay at home as long as possible but they think they can't afford in-home assistance. The VA Pension is the answer to this problem, but unless someone tells this couple they will never know about it. The VA Pension will make the difference between living safely and comfortably at home, or having to leave their home to move to a facility.
Can VA Pension help the spouse of a living veteran?
A common misconception is that the VA Pension only helps if the veteran or the surviving spouse of a deceased veteran needs extra care. The assumption (incorrect) is that if the spouse of a living veteran has medical expenses, then VA Pension does not help. Actually, while eligibility rests initially on the veteran's status, the veteran can get help to pay for the spouse's expenses, too. Here is the situation.
Assume that there is a veteran completely healthy, over age 65, living at home. His wife needs to move to assisted living. In that case, the wife's medical expenses can be used to reduce the couple's Income for VA Purposes to a level where the veteran will receive the basic Improved Pension of nearly $1,000 per month. That extra money can make it possible for the veteran to provide care for his spouse while making their savings last longer.
For more infomation...
You can get more information about VA Pension and Aid and Attendance by signing up for our free online Veterans Pension Learning Center.
