In years past, there was a lot of confusion and even frustration among veterans applying for the Aid and Attendance Benefit. This pension provides financial support to qualifying veterans to rely on a home care aide, visiting nurse, or another professional within the comfort of their home.

 

Aid and Attendance: Are you Eligible?

Aid and Attendance: Are you Eligible?

 

There are some requirements that need to be met.

One of the key requirements is the time of service. A veteran needs to be considered a wartime veteran. In other words, even though they don’t need to have fought in a forward combat situation or even have been stationed in an area where combat was taking place, at least one day of their active duty service needs to have overlapped a period of official combat, as defined by Congress.

This would basically be World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or the Gulf War. Also, the veteran needs to have served at least 90 days active duty if they served any time during World War II, the Korean War, or the Vietnam War. If they served any time of their active duty service during the Gulf War, they also need to have served a minimum of two years in one of the major branches of the United States military.

In the past, a lot of the confusion and frustration for veterans applying for this pension involved financial aspects. One veteran in one part of the country may have been approved, even though they earned the same income and had basically the same assets as another veteran somewhere else who had been denied. Currently, the combined income and asset threshold is $80,000. However, a primary residence is not necessarily calculated into that combined asset and income limit.

 

One of the toughest things is to prove home care is necessary.

For some veterans, this will be easy. They may have a doctor who has told them they need to get home care support. For others, if they are struggling with their basic care, need the support of family and friends for many Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), they may feel as though a home care aide would be better and ultimately apply for the Aid and Attendance Benefit.

However, this could be subjective and the approval committee may not see things the same way, so just because a veteran believes he or she would qualify based on the main requirements of this pension, it’s not a guarantee and if anyone is advertising assistance filling out this application or moving assets around in order to guarantee approval, they simply can’t do that. There is no guarantee and the VA strongly discourages any veteran from paying for assistance filling out and submitting this and other pensions in order to avoid becoming a victim of fraud.

 

If you or a loved one are needing assistance with Aid and Attendance, please contact the friendly staff at Veterans Care Coordination™.
Call today: 1-855-380-4400

 

Posted in Aid and Attendance, Aid and Attendance Benefit

About Kyle Laramie, Founder & CEO

Kyle founded Veterans Care Coordination in April 2011. As its founder and CEO of VCC, Kyle is driven by the memory of his grandfather, a World War II Veteran who unnecessarily missed out on essential VA benefits because Kyle’s family wasn’t aware of available opportunities. In recognition of his impact in leadership, Kyle was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s prestigious “40 Under 40” list and St. Louis Small Business Monthly’s “100 St. Louisans to Know” in 2014. VCC was named a St. Louis Small Business Monthly “Top 20” small business and a finalist for the St. Louis Post Dispatch Top Workplace (2015-2022), St. Louis Business Journal Best Place to Work (2019 & 2022), and the Arcus Awards (2014). The team has served more than 14,000 Veteran clients and their families. Kyle frequently speaks on Veterans’ benefits, addressing conferences such as the Home Care Association of America and Decision Health. He is passionate about giving back and has built a charitable-minded organization that supports various philanthropic efforts.