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Wartime Veterans
Aid & Attendance Benefits
Overview
What is Aid & Attendance?
Asset & Income Requirements
How much money is available?
How much disability is required for a Claimant to receive the Aid and Attendance Pension?
Overview
There are millions of US veterans that are potentially eligible for some form of VA benefits. Most believe they are only entitled to benefits if they were wounded or disabled while serving in the armed forces. However, VA special pensions exist, including the Aid and Attendance Pension (and their local VA office won't tell them about it!) that wartime veterans and their spouses may be entitled to receive. Many vets (particularly our WWII and Korea veterans who are starting to get up in years) are battling chronic conditions and struggling to pay for their care. VA special pensions are one of many tools that an elder care attorney can look to when helping people plan for their long term care needs. While you struggle to provide dignified long term care for a wartime veteran or surviving spouse, we can help you understand what the options are and how to access under utilized benefits available to veterans.
The use of the Aid & Attendance benefit is probably easiest to understand by looking at an actual example of how it has been used for our clients in the past. Joe is a 80 year old who had been living with his son and his son’s family. Joe suffers from moderate dementia and some physical limitations that restrict his mobility. The house where Joe was living was not easy for him to get around in and he sometimes butted heads with his granddaughter. Joe has very limited resources—assets of about $25,000 and monthly income from social security and a pension of around $1,200. After evaluating Joe, it was very apparent that besides suffering from Parkinson’s he was also dealingwith depression, possibly as a result of his lack of social interaction during the day, while his son and wife were at work.
As you can see, this situation presents a true dilemma: How to get help for Joe when he really cannot afford to bring care into the home during the day, and facilities can be quite expensive. We determined that Joe served in Korea and met other requirements for a VA special pension—in this case Aid & Attendance. When the monthly benefit of $1,644 was added to his current income of $1,200, assisted living became a possibility. (We were also able to secure some funding from Medicaid as well). As soon as Joe was taken around to look at assisted living facilities, his outlook on life began to improve. Joe found a room that he liked in a facility and moved in. His total income from all sources provides enough to pay his rent and have some money left over to pay for other expenses. Joe’s life is much happier now, he is well socialized with other residents and he doesn’t feel like he is a burden to his son and daughter-in-law. This simply wouldn’t have been possible without the VA pension.
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What is Aid & Attendance?
Aid and Attendance is a "special monthly pension" available to wartime veterans or surviving spouses of wartime veterans. The veteran or surviving spouse must first be eligible for the “service” benefit. That requires the basic qualification by the veteran of having served at least 90 days of active military duty, at least one of those days had to be during wartime (as defined by the Veteran’s Administration). and having received a discharge that was other than dishonorable. Next the veteran or surviving spouse must have a permanent and total disability or be over 65.
It may surprise you that the VA rates all veterans over the age of 65 as “permanently and totally” disabled. For veterans under the age of 65, permanent and total disability includes: a veteran who is in a nursing home; rated as disabled by the Social Security Administration; unemployable and reasonably certain to continue so throughout life; or suffering from a disability that makes it impossible for the average person to stay gainfully employed.
If a veteran (or their spouse) meets the service test, then the veteran or surviving spouse may additionally be entitled to the additional Aid and Attendance pension, depending on health, income, and asset figures. Please remember that with this program there is no requirement of a service-connected disability.
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Asset & Income Requirements
There are financial eligibility requirements associated with the qualification for any VA pension, including Aid and Attendance benefits. The current rule of thumb (although the VA rules are quite murky and there is no “magic number” for assets) is that a married veteran and spouse can have no more than $80,000 in countable assets ($50,000 for a single veteran or surviving spouse). Those amounts include bank accounts, savings bonds, stocks, farm/lake property, and retirement assets but exclude a home and a vehicle. Remember that this is merely a guideline and not a rule. There are other factors that the VA caseworkers consider such as age/life expectancy, income and medical expenses in determining whether the veteran or surviving spouse is entitled to pension benefits.
There is no gross income limit for VA pension benefits. As opposed to just looking at gross income, the VA considers what it refers to as IVAP (income for VA purposes). IVAP is equal to a claimant's gross income from all sources less countable medical expenses. Some of the items that would be considered medical expenses include the costs of in-home care, assisted living, or skilled care expenses. Click here for a list of possible medical expenses. If a claimant's IVAP is equal to or greater than the annual benefit amount, the veteran or surviving spouse is not eligible for benefits.
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How much disability is required for a Claimant to receive the Aid and Attendance Pension?
The claimant must show that he or she requires the “aid and attendance” of another person in order to perform some of the basic activities of daily living. This could include help with prescriptions, bathing, or even just constant supervision, if medically necessary. The medical evidence must be provided by a physician. Additionally, if the claimant resides in a facility, then the facility must also provide a letter stating that the individual resides in the facility because of the need for assistance with the activities of daily living.
How much money is available?
This depends on several factors, including if the veteran or their widowed spouse is applying for benefits, and the health of the veteran/spouse at the time of application.
Generally speaking, if the veteran is in need of the aid and attendance of another person, they can receive up to a maximum of $1,704 if they are single, and $2,020,if they are married each month.
If the widowed spouse of a veteran is applying for benefits, then they can receive up to a maximum of $1,095 each month.
If the veteran is applying, but his/her spouse is the person who needs care, then the maximum benefit can be up to $1,338 per month.
Finally, in the case where two veterans are married to each other, and both need care they could jointly qualify for up to a maximum benefit of $2,631 per month.
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The Application Process
If you meet all the criteria for a service pension you still have to go through the application process. The VA pension application process will likely seem overly complex, and take longer than most would think necessary. The VA pension application is very long and asks for many pieces of supporting documentation: everything from marriage certificates (of current and prior marriages), to proof of financial data, to military discharge papers to divorce decrees or death certificates from prior marriages. Once the actual application is completed and filed with the VA , the process, in general, takes six to nine months. However, the silver lining is that the benefit is retroactive to the month after the application is submitted . It is very important to have all papers together at the time of application in a “ready to rate” format.
WHO CAN HELP WITH AN APPLICATION?
Also when dealing with applications, remember that it is illegal for anyone to charge a fee for filling out or assisting to file an application.
Before taking action on any specific course, consider that you should have guidance in the following areas:
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Care options available for the veteran and/or spouse
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A review of VA, Medicaid and Medicare and how each may apply to your circumstances
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Specific documents including powers of attorney for property and healthcare matters, wills and trusts
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A plan for the best use of your personal, financial, and family resources
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Analysis of tax consequences for income, capital gains, estate and/or gift taxes
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An analysis of which planning options best fit your circumstances
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A calculation of the actual dollar benefit and/or cost of any idea that is discussed
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What options are available if it is anticipated that a home may be sold in the future?
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An analysis of what effect actions taken to qualify for VA benefits may have on future eligibility if you need to qualify for Medicaid!!
Only after each of these points are thoroughly examined, should an individual decide if he or she wants to file an application for VA benefits.
*Special Thanks to Miles Hurley, Attorney at Law for his contributions to this summary of A&A benefits.
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