An additional pension for qualifying veterans
Recently I have had many clients come to my office with a similar problem. They have had to hire a home health aide for their parents or place them into an assisted living facility. The problem that my clients, typically the adult children of a disabled senior, have is that their parent’s income does not cover their living expenses with an aide or the monthly cost of the assisted living facility. When I am confronted with this problem, I have been asking my clients whether one of their parents was a veteran. If one of the parents was in fact a veteran and require the assistance of a home health aide or reside in an assisted living facility, they may be entitled to an additional pension via the Veterans Administration’s (VA) Aid and Attendance Program.
The Aid & Attendance pension provides benefits for veterans and surviving spouses who require the assistance with the activities of daily living (ADL’s). This includes regular attendance of another person to assist in eating, bathing, dressing and undressing. Assisted care in an assisting living facility also qualifies.
The requirements to qualify are as follows. First, it must be established by your physician that you require assistance with the above mentioned activities. Importantly, you do not need to show that you require assistance with all of these activities – only that you cannot function completely on your own.
Second, you must provide the VA with proof of your net worth, net income (including social security, other pension and IRA distributions) and complete breakdown of your monthly expenses, including the cost of the aide, assisted living and other medical expenses.
Qualifying applicants may be entitled to receive up to $1,632 per month to a veteran, $1,055 per month to a surviving spouse, or $1,949 per month to a couple. It should be noted that not every applicant will receive the same pension. The VA will compute the actual needs of the applicant in determining the pension amount. The pension is not contingent on a “service related” injury or condition.
The VA has made it illegal to hire someone to file the application on your behalf, but you can hire an Aid and Attendant Consultant to offer you advice on how to file the claim. You can also contact this office for questions about the program and advice on how to file a claim.
Andrew Lamkin is principal in the law firm of Andrew M. Lamkin, P.C., where he focuses his practice in the areas of elder law, estate planning and special needs planning, including Wills and Trusts, Medicaid planning, estate administration and residential real estate transactions. He is admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey.
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