Caregivers for Aging Veterans
The Aid and Attendance Benefit is a pension made available through the VA that provides financial assistance for veterans who require some type of care at home. In order to qualify for this particular pension, certain criteria must be met and the veteran needs to be able to prove that home care is absolutely necessary.
There are an estimated 19 million veterans living in the United States right now, and fewer than 1 million who take advantage of the Aid and Attendance Benefit. That doesn’t mean there are fewer than 1 million veterans who require some type of assistance and care at home, though. It often means that far too many veterans are simply unaware of this particular pension or don’t believe they would be eligible, anyway, because they were denied other pensions.
Different eligibility requirements.
Just because a veteran may have been denied other pensions in the past, that doesn’t mean they would automatically be denied the Aid and Attendance pension. That’s because the asset and income threshold values are different for this particular pension as opposed to others.
In other words, if a veteran was denied a different pension, he or she should still be encouraged to apply for the Aid and Attendance Benefit if they require home care support because their asset and income level may be enough to receive this particular pension.
Veterans of all ages can benefit from the Aid and Attendance Pension, as long as they served during an active time of combat. The key stipulations and criteria that must be met for this particular pension include serving a minimum of 90 days active duty in one of the major branches of the United States military. A minimum of one day of their service has to have fallen during a time of active combat as defined by Congress.
This latter point is often misunderstood. It essentially means a person needs to have served a minimum of one day during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam Conflict, or the Gulf War. They don’t need to have served in a combat situation, though.
The veteran could have been stationed all the way on the other side of the world from an active combat zone and would still qualify based on this particular point.
Any veteran who requires assistance at home should be encouraged to look into the Aid and Attendance Benefit. If they qualify and can prove home care is necessary, it can help them pay for it and that can be the difference between getting the support they need and struggling on their own.
For more information and to learn about caregivers for aging veterans, contact Veteran’s Home Care at (888) 314-6075.
