One of the lesser known benefits available to Veterans is “Aid and Attendanceâ€.
The VA isn’t likely to be proactive and let you know of it. Aid and Attendance is a pension program, not a compensation benefit, designed to assist a Veteran who is totally and permanently disabled and in need of assistive care in the home.
Veterans who have served at least 90 days of active duty with at least 1 day in a period of war are eligible. There are some income restrictions so before you make a formal application to VA you should review the restrictions with a County Service Officer and your trusted tax preparer, accountant or attorney to ensure that the benefit will be worth it to you in the long run. VA often tells applicants that their earnings are too high, “case closedâ€, when all too often this isn’t quite right and you can be sure VA won’t tell you how you may adjust or “offset†some assets to qualify.
The benefit isn’t for just anyone who may need some help with housekeeping. VA will want to know if you are truly disabled and can’t care for yourself or perform functions of daily living. This means you will require the regular attendance of a caregiver to bathe, get dressed, prepare and consume meals, keep your living quarters clean, attend to your bowel and bladder functions or prepare yourself to be transported to doctor or clinic visits.
VA has a form for everything and today’s form is VA 21-2680. This is the “Examination For Housebound Status Or Permanent Need For Aid And Attendanceâ€. The VA Medical Examiner, when completing this form, is instructed to evaluate you to determine whether there is disease or injury that produces physical or mental impairment, loss of coordination or enfeeblement affecting your ability to dress or undress yourself, to attend to the wants of nature and keep yourself clean. VA wants to know if you are blind or housebound, how well you get around and what you do on an ordinary day. In addition to the usual physical findings, VA would like to know how many hours each day you spend in bed. They’ll make notes of your condition as it affects your ability to button a shirt, feed yourself, shave, comb your hair and walk around. Do you have dizziness, poor memory, loss of balance or other conditions that will affect your daily life and do you regularly use crutches or a walker?
Finally, VA asks that the VA physician who evaluates you and records all this information certify by their signature that you require the daily personal health care services of a skilled provider without which you would require hospital, nursing home or other institutional care.
If you are already confined to a nursing home or in some instances an “assisted living centerâ€, VA may assume all of the above and proceed with less formality required in paperwork.
As always, there are plenty of sharks swimming in our waters hoping to take advantage of you, the senior citizen/Veteran who may be intimidated by the amount of paperwork, applications and financial statements required to qualify for the Aid and Attendance benefit. “We’re to help you†is the first thing they’ll tell you, often enough you’ll then hear, “We have a way of cutting red tape and getting this done more quickly for you than anyone elseâ€.
In a very brief search for those wanting to “help†you, I quickly found some misleading advertising. From one website (I‘ve changed the name), all the following was touted:
Veterans Aid and Assistance Pension Program Now Available from (Our Best) Senior Living Communities…The senior living communities of (Our Best) offer a Veterans Aid and Assistance Pension Program to help qualified residents defray the costs of living in a retirement community. The Veterans Aid and Assistance Pension Program is available to current and new residents of (Our best) senior living communities. The application process for the program can be complicated, so (Our Best) has made arrangements with a local company that specializes in accessing this program to assist qualified veterans and/or their spouses in applying for these benefits. If you pre-qualify for this program and move in to a (Our Best) senior living community, we will cover the costs to help you apply for the Veterans Aid and Assistance Pension Program.
The Senior Living Communities featured here appear to be very nice. And expensive. However, there’s a lot of the above that simply doesn’t ring true. They (Our Best) aren’t offering you an Aid and Attendance Pension Program, the Veterans Administration is offering that to you. The VA doesn’t offer the program to you to help defray the costs of living in their retirement community, it’s offered if you are truly in need of skilled care because you are totally and permanently disabled and would otherwise be institutionalized.
The application process isn’t really that complicated. Your local State or County Veterans Service Officer has all the information you need and they’ll guide you every step of the way. It seems that it would be nice of (Our Best) to cover the costs of applying for the Veterans Administration Aid and Attendance program doesn’t it? If there were any costs! There aren’t any costs to you to apply. Your State or County Veterans Service Officer will do it all for free and they’re the real experts having done hundreds or even thousands of these applications.
And then there’s the real message if you’re looking for it; “If you pre-qualify for this program and move in to a (Our Best) senior living community…â€. The ‘pre-qualification’ is simply their way of getting you into their sales offices to begin filling out the credit applications and so on. They’re going to help you but first they want to assess your bank account and run a quick credit check to ensure that you’ll be profitable to them.
The example provided here may be perfectly legitimate. The(Our Best) providers may offer the best living conditions for senior Veterans on the planet. They may provide great value for the money you spend with them. I wonder though, if all that were true, why use slick sales tactics to make it seem as if applying for your VA benefits is a process that you can’t accomplish alone or that there is some sort of cost associated with the application? It always concerns me when a company attempts to deceive even a little.
Caveat emptor is Latin for "let the buyer beware". Seniors and Veterans must use all necessary caution when a for-profit business extends an offer to help them. Ultimately the business is there to make a profit from your money. That’s great, it’s the American way and we thrive in our capitalist society. But when a business entity offers to help you to complete a service and pay them for that help when the service is free and your state and county government have professionals in place to serve you at no cost, caveat emptor! In this instance a business may try to get you into their sales rooms promising that your Veterans Benefits will cover all or most of the costs and when you find out later that VA has denied your application, it’s too late…caveat emptor! Beyond the companies like (Our Best) who are in the business of selling you a retirement community condo or apartment are on-line businesses with nothing else to sell you other than their ability to complete forms. Usually they’ll have fine print that says they can’t guarantee the outcomes and they’ll want as much as $1000.00 up front to “help†you…caveat emptor!
Aid and Attendance is a wonderful benefit for Veterans who want to stay out of a nursing home but can’t quite cope alone. If you must be confined to a nursing home, Aid and Attendance can help you pay the bills.
Like so many other VA benefits programs, you should begin the process of application early rather than waiting until the last moment. This is another of the VA processes that could take 6 months or more to complete and as with most VA offerings, it will be retroactive to the date of your application.
If you’re a Veteran or the spouse of a Veteran and you’re at that age where you can see Aid and Attendance needs in the not-too-distant future that may require some professional assistance at home, start now to work through the details and learn if you qualify. Your first stop, as is so often the case with any Veterans benefits, is at your State or County Veterans Service Officer’s local office. These folks are always professional, well trained and dedicated to serving you, the Veteran. They’re part of your government and they have the knowledge to get the work done correctly the first time.
A real plus to visiting your County Veterans Service Officer is that you won’t see a bill from them…you paid them long ago with your service to our country!
