Your father served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and while you know that he didn’t see a lot of action, he spent four years of his life overseas, supporting the troops that were on the ground. As he has gotten older, you have noticed that he’s having more trouble tending to his own needs and you realize that even as a veteran, he needs the right level of home care.
The one major hurdle that you are coming across when it comes to finding the right care for him at home is that he only lives on a fixed income. Part of that income comes through a pension that the VA provides. It’s enough for him to afford rent and food and basic utilities, but not much else. He has another pension from Social Security, but that covers his medication and some other peripheral expenses.
You would love to help but you’re not on financial solid ground either, so you tend to feel more helpless about the situation. That’s why it’s important that you and other veterans and their families know about the VA Aid and Attendance Benefit.
This is a commonly overlooked pension that is available to certain veterans who qualify and until fairly recently, it wasn’t highly advertised. In fact, still not enough veterans know about the Aid and Attendance pension and those that might have heard about it, if they were denied another type of pension, they might not think that they would qualify for this one.
The truth is that even for veterans who might not have qualified for another pension through the VA, they may be eligible for the Aid and Attendance pension. This could be used to help pay for home care for the veteran and other medically related expenses that would allow them to remain home.
In order to qualify, for veterans over the age of 65, they would need to show a real need for home care and that would need to be verified by a doctor. As for their service, he would need to have served at least 90 days of active duty in the military with at least 1 of those days being during a time of combat, such as the Vietnam Era, as Congress has labeled it.
If you think that your elderly loved one might qualify for the Aid and Attendance benefit, talk to them about it and begin the application process through the VA. Home care for the veteran can make all the difference in the world.
For more information and to learn about Veterans Elderly Care, contact Veteran’s Home Care at (888) 314-6075.
