If you are a Veteran who requires home care services, VA Aid & Attendance is an extremely useful pension benefit. If you apply for this program and your application is accepted, you can use the pension to cover your home care services. Here’s what you should know about VA Aid & Attendance qualifications, eligibility, and benefits.
Aid & Attendance Service Eligibility Requirements
To qualify for the Aid & Attendance pension benefit, you or the Veteran in your life must have served active duty for at least 90 days during a period of war. For example, if you or the Veteran served during the Vietnam Era, those 90 days must have fallen between Aug. 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975. You can learn more about these Aid & Attendance war periods and dates of service here.
If your or your loved one’s active duty aligns with the required Aid & Attendance dates of service, you can begin determining if you or they meet the physical and financial qualifications for this pension benefit.
Physical Requirements for Aid & Attendance
To qualify for Aid & Attendance, you or your Veteran loved one must also meet specific physical requirements. These include the following:
- You need another person to help you perform activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, eating, and taking medication.
- You must stay in bed for most of the day due to illness or disability.
- Your eyesight is limited to 5/200 in both eyes or a concentric visual field of 5 degrees or less. This must be the case even when you wear glasses or contacts.
- You are a nursing home patient because of physical or mental incapacity.
If you meet these physical requirements, you can move forward to consider the Aid & Attendance financial requirements.
Financial Requirements for Aid & Attendance
Aid & Attendance is a pension benefit for low-income Veterans, so it has financial requirements to ensure this benefit goes to Veterans who genuinely need it. Because of this, Aid & Attendance has a maximum net worth requirement, which will likely be $129,094 in 2020. One new Aid & Attendance requirement is a 36-month look-back period, where the VA examines the assets you’ve gifted or transferred over the past three months.
Why is there now a 36-month look-back period? In the past, some veterans have transferred or gifted assets to relatives to make themselves appear eligible for the Aid & Attendance benefit. The look-back period is meant to deter that sort of abuse of this benefit so it’s provided to Veterans with genuine financial need.
You can find out more about the Aid & Attendance financial requirements here.
Aid & Attendance is a pension benefit for low-income Veterans, so it has financial requirements to ensure this benefit goes to Veterans who genuinely need it. Because of this, Aid & Attendance has a maximum net worth requirement, which will likely be $129,094 in 2020.
What if I’m Not Sure About My Aid & Attendance Eligibility?
If you don’t know whether you meet the necessary requirements for the Aid & Attendance pension benefit, AVCC can help. We provide screenings for Aid & Attendance eligibility, so you’ll know whether you qualify.
After we determine your eligibility, we work with you to submit your Aid & Attendance application to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our staff continuously contacts the VA to check on your application’s status so it moves through the process without getting tangled in the system. We even have a VA attorney on staff to verify your application forms so they will move through the system and you can access your Aid & Attendance benefits.
AVCC is here to help you determine your eligibility for this particular VA pension benefit and apply for it successfully.
Let AVCC Determine Your Aid & Attendance Eligibility
Figuring out the process of applying for and receiving VA pension benefits can be tough. That’s why we at AVCC focus on helping Veterans access Aid & Attendance pension benefits. We screen them to determine their Veterans Aid & Attendance financial eligibility and monitor the application process to make sure their application goes through. If you believe you should receive Aid & Attendance benefits in addition to your basic pension, contact us today. We’ll help you work through this process so you can receive home care that lets you stay in your house.
