Veterans Home Care – As Need Increases, the Aid and Attendance Benefit Becomes Even More Important
According to the Veterans Administration, there are approximately 23 million veterans living in the United States right now. A significant number of them are over the age of 65 and considered elderly. These aging veterans share many things in common with other seniors throughout the country. That is a strong desire to remain at home as long as possible.
Veterans who may require some type of care prefer to remain home for a variety of reasons. The most significant has to do with comfort. People tend to be far more comfortable with in their own home setting, especially if they have been living in the same house for many years. As the demand for home care increases for these aging veterans, there is also an increased need for financial assistance.
Elderly individuals who are on a limited and fixed income, such as is the case for many veterans, it can be exceedingly difficult to find ways to pay for professional home care. That’s where various assistance programs through the VA come into play.
The Aid and Attendance Benefit
One of those pension programs that can assist aging veterans in receiving the type of home care they need is called the VA Aid and Attendance Benefit. This is a pension program that was developed 60 years ago as a way to help returning veterans receive proper care at home. These veterans were returning home from the battlefield with a wide range of physical and emotional challenges. Some had lost limbs in battle, suffered hypothermia, dealt with significant injuries, and others faced shell shock, which is referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder today.
As the demand for home care increases, it becomes ever more important to spread the word about these various pension programs that could help aging veterans pay for this level of care. In order to qualify for the Aid and Attendance pension, the veteran needs to have served at least 90 days of active duty service in one of the major branches of the United States military, with at least one of those days being during a time of official combat as defined by Congress. This includes World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam Conflict, and the Gulf War. They would also need to have been honorably discharged from service.
