Quick Tips: Veteran’s Day

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Happy Veteran’s Day! Two quick tips for your day:

1. Use today to gain insight about your care recipient

As with all holidays, Veteran’s Day offers the opportunity to gain a perspective on your care recipient’s life history and personal experiences. Take time to day to ask questions about your care recipients’ war experiences (regardless of whether they served). You’ll be amazed at what you learn about your care recipient and your country. If your care recipient has dementia, ask simple questions that can lead to a discussion–no matter where the discussion leads.

2. Benefits available to veterans: VA Aid and Attendance Program

Aid and Attendance is a benefit available to veterans, their spouses, or widows. This benefit is available to help offset some of the cost of nursing homes, assisted living communities, personal care homes, or homecare expenses.

Qualifications:

• Veteran, spouse or widow/er served during wartime, including those who served state side.

• Served at least 90 days of active service with one of those days being during wartime. Eligible dates are 4/21/1898-7/15/1903, 5/9/1916-11/11/1918, 12/07/1941-12/31/1946, 6/27/1950-1/31/1955, 8/5/1964-5/7/1975, 8/20/1990-present.

• The veteran received an honorable discharge; a copy of the Discharge Papers must be provided with the application.

• The spouse must not have divorced the veteran.

• If the veteran has died and the widow remarries, benefits may still be available.

• The veteran must need some assistance with at least two activities of daily living such as bathing, meal preparation, etc.

• Applicants must be receiving the assistance or have a doctor’s order before they can apply. Benefits are retroactive to the application date.

• There are some financial qualifications, based on adjusted income for those applying. However, it is based on an adjusted income not the gross income. To figure the adjusted income, medical expenses, insurance premiums, medications, and even the cost of the community where they are residing is taken into consideration. Assets not included are the applicant’s home, pensions, small life insurance policies, prepaid funeral expenses, and annuities in payout status. There is no look back period at this current time. If the veteran exceeds the monthly income level after the adjusted income is figured they still may qualify for benefits, the dollar amount is simply reduced dollar for dollar that they are over.

• Married veterans are eligible for $1,949/month, single veterans $1,632 and widows of veterans $1,055. This is paid directly to the applicant/responsible party as additional income, not to the community where they reside.

• Approval can take from 30 to 90 days. Applications can be expedited based on need.

What are Aid and Attendance and Housebound benefits?
Aid and Attendance (A&A) is a benefit paid in addition to monthly pension. This benefit may not be paid without eligibility to pension. A veteran may be eligible for A&A when:

• The veteran requires the aid of another person in order to perform personal functions required in everyday living, such as bathing, feeding, dressing, attending to the wants of nature, adjusting prosthetic devices, or protecting himself/herself from the hazards of his/her daily environment, OR,
• The veteran is bedridden, in that his/her disability or disabilities requires that he/she remain in bed apart from any prescribed course of convalescence or treatment, OR,
• The veteran is a patient in a nursing home due to mental or physical incapacity, OR,
• The veteran is blind, or so nearly blind as to have corrected visual acuity of 5/200 or less, in both eyes, or concentric contraction of the visual field to 5 degrees or less.

Housebound is paid in addition to monthly pension. Like A&A, Housebound benefits may not be paid without eligibility to pension. A veteran may be eligible for Housebound benefits when:

• The veteran has a single permanent disability evaluated as 100-percent disabling AND, due to such disability, he/she is permanently and substantially confined to his/her immediate premises, OR,
• The veteran has a single permanent disability evaluated as 100-percent disabling AND, another disability, or disabilities, evaluated as 60 percent or more disabling.
• A veteran cannot receive both Aid and Attendance and Housebound benefits at the same time.

How to Apply for Aid and Attendance and Housebound:
You may apply for Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits by writing to the VA regional office having jurisdiction of the claim. That would be the office where you filed a claim for pension benefits. If the regional office of jurisdiction is not known, you may file the request with any VA regional office.

You should include copies of any evidence, preferably a report from an attending physician validating the need for Aid and Attendance or Housebound type care.

The report should be in sufficient detail to determine whether there is disease or injury producing physical or mental impairment, loss of coordination, or conditions affecting the ability to dress and undress, to feed oneself, to attend to sanitary needs, and to keep oneself ordinarily clean and presentable.

In addition, it is necessary to determine whether the claimant is confined to the home or immediate premises.

Whether the claim is for Aid and Attendance or Housebound, the report should indicate how well the individual gets around, where the individual goes, and what he or she is able to do during a typical day.

Resources:

National Association of Area Agencies of Aging

U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs

Veterans-Express

Tags: aid and attendance care benefit, veterans