I actually got this question at a VA seminar I did in Lubbock recently. It happened at the break in the middle, as people got up to stretch their legs or grab another cup of coffee before I dove back into the main rules of eligibility for the VA Pension benefit that is so important to many of our clients in paying for care. It’s called the “Non-Service Connected Pension with Aid & Attendance.” Why the long name? Well there are two main monthly benefits that Veterans can be eligible for. One is service-connected disability compensation – which requires that the Veteran can prove that they have an illness or injury that was caused by their service. You will hear these Veterans say they’ve been assessed to have a percentage disability rating like 30% or 40% (can go as high as 100%). Their monthly benefit amount depends on that disability rating.
The other main monthly VA benefit for wartime Veterans is the VA Pension. This benefit does not depend on the Veteran proving any sort of injury or illness during their service at all. It is not a “service-connected” benefit. If you think of VA Pension as a layer cake, base pension is the layer on the bottom, but the “Aid & Attendance” layer can be added on the top to achieve the highest level of benefit.
Surviving spouses of wartime Veterans can be eligible for this benefit too!
So what is to be gained by claiming this benefit? Here are the tax free benefit levels by marital/dependent status:
Surviving Spouse of Veteran $1,149 per month
Single Veteran $1,788 per month
Veteran with Spouse/Dependent $2,120 per month
Nothing to sneeze at right! You can see why this important benefit is the missing piece of the puzzle in paying for care for so many of our clients.
So how do you become eligible? It’s not as clear cut as you would hope.
There are 4 prongs of eligibility:
#1 Service Requirement
#2 Need for Care
#3 Asset Limitations
#4 Medical Expenses vs. Income
If you’d like to take part in an in-depth discussion of the rules and really understand the ins and outs of this benefit, call my office and sign up for our Veterans Pension seminar. It’s free! Well, it will cost you two hours of your time, but it will be time well-spent for you or someone you love who could be eligible for this new income.
For purposes of today’s discussion, I won’t go into the details of all the rules. I want to focus on just the last one. Hands down, most of the people I talk to who have tried to apply for this benefit on their own have been denied because of #4 above: Medical Expenses vs. Income. And the denial letter they get won’t help them understand why they’ve been denied. It will simply say they have too much income. This is what happened with the lady I introduced you to at the beginning of this post. Let’s call her Wilma.
Wilma lives at home, but needs the help of her daughter on a regular basis to stay there safely. Her daughter attended the seminar with her. Wilma is the surviving spouse of a wartime Veteran and literally has $600 per month in social security income. She applied for VA Pension with Aid & Attendance, and was denied – for having too much income!
The real issue is that she didn’t have enough countable medical expense. Under the rules for this program, the claimant must have as much medical expense as they have income to qualify for the maximum benefit amount! This one rule is the reason we see so many people be unsuccessful applying on their own. Or if they are approved, it’s for something like $200 a month. Now, $200 a month is better than nothing. But $2,120 per month is a lot better!
As I talked with Wilma and her daughter about her situation and her need for care, I knew that we could help her get the full benefit amount, and that this would give her options for care that she would never otherwise have.
If you or a loved one would like more information about his benefit, call our office today for a free qualification assessment by phone. You have nothing to lose, and a whole lot to gain.
