Thursday, February 10, 2011

What is an EVR?

With every new year, our firm gets lots of questions from our existing clients that are receiving veteran's administration (VA) benefits as either a wartime veteran or their surviving spouse.  This is because these clients have just received an EVR (Eligibility Verification Report) from the VA.  

The purpose of this form is twofold.   First, they want to make sure that the estimated expenses and income that the veteran reported for the last year (2010) was fairly accurate, and if possible to award them any extra benefits if the expenses were larger than expected.   Second, they want to determine if the veteran or their spouse is expected to remain eligible for benefits for the next year (2011).

We have had clients who decided they didn't feel like filling out these forms, or didn't return them timely.   DON'T DO THIS!!!

If you fail to return these forms, the VA will stop your benefits, and it is a major pain to try to get them reinstated.  With most applications taking 6-8 months to get approved, don't let procrastination cause you to lose your benefits for many more months.

The EVR is actually fairly simple to fill out, but many people make the mistake of not including the costs of the assisted living/skilled nursing/home care as a medical expense.   In most cases, these costs is what entitled the veteran or spouse to get the aid and attendance benefits in the first place- so a failure to include them on the EVR will likely cause the benefits to stop, and could even cause the VA to issue a demand for repayment.   Again, while it is posisble to fix mistakes, it is much better to be careful and ask for help before causing a big problem for the family.