VA Aid and Attendance for Spouses—How You Can Qualify

Each VA benefit comes with its own standard of eligibility, so you need to know how your situation applies to the service you’re seeking. Your eligibility requirements as a surviving spouse vary depending on a variety of factors:

• If your spouse was a wartime Veteran who didn’t receive a dishonorable discharge, this may qualify you for a VA Survivors Pension.
• If you’re the surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty from a service-related injury or illness, you may qualify for VA Dependency or Indemnity Compensation (VA DIC).
• If you’re the surviving spouse of a Veteran with a service-connected disability, this could entitle you to specific health care program benefits like The Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA).
• A Certificate of Eligibility (COE) proving your qualifications is essential, especially when applying for a VA-backed home loan.
• You must be married to and have lived with your spouse for a certain period to qualify for almost all spousal VA benefits.

It’s free to take apply for Veteran spouse benefits, the surviving spouses of service members should take advantage of long-term care services. As long as you meet the proper marriage and income requirements, which we’ll address later, you should consider this as an option.

Unfortunately, it’s not common knowledge that wartime Veterans (and especially their surviving spouses) are eligible for VA assistance, even if they were not injured while on active duty. AVCC is committed to educating surviving spouses of deceased Veterans about their eligibility for Aid and Attendance.

Aid and Attendance is a monthly pension for Veterans who require the assistance of another person. To qualify for the service, the Veteran who served must have at least 90 days of active duty, with at least one of those days taking place during wartime. Surviving spouses of Veterans who served during wartime can receive a surviving spouse pension that gives them access to Aid and Attendance as well.

There are asset limits on this benefit. In 2021, recipients of this benefit were required to have a net worth of less than $130,773. The VA doesn’t count your home as an asset. VA Countable income and maximum annual pension rate (MAPR) are also considered in your Aid and Attendance. If you want to take advantage of these benefits, verify that you fit the financial requirements first.

To qualify for VA pension benefits, surviving spouses must meet the three following requirements:

1. You must have been married to a wartime Veteran for at least one year.
2. You must have been married at the time of your Veteran spouse’s death.
3. You can present your military spouse’s death certificate.

Once you start receiving a VA pension and have shown that you need the assistance of another person to perform activities of daily living (ADLs), you can access services that help with:

• Feeding and meal preparation
• Housekeeping
• Small tasks and reminders
• Medication reminders
• Transportation
• Physical assistance
• Bathing, using the restroom, and overall hygiene
• Laundry
• Other daily tasks that improve your quality of life

Aid and Attendance benefits help a lot of surviving spouses. As people age, they typically need assistance with the aspects of daily life many of us take for granted—not to mention how debilitating medical conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, and arthritis can be. Plus, this type of long-term care tends to cover what Medicare won’t.

Aid and Attendance is especially beneficial to patients who want to permanently reside at home.

Our number-one priority is connecting our Veterans with the quality home care services they deserve. We understand that in the mountain of paperwork and phone calls, taking advantage of your benefits is a headache. That’s why we draw from our extensive network of home care service providers to connect you with the services you need.