Financial Assistance for Elderly Veterans and Their Widows Is A Well Kept Secret

Financial Assistance for Elderly Veterans and Their Widows Is A Well Kept Secret.
By Sonja Kobrin, M.P.S., C.M.C. Geriatric Care Manager

Ask an elderly Veteran if they are aware they may be eligible for a pension from the Veteran’s Administration and they will tell you “I’m not eligible because I was not injured in the War.” This is a common misconception which keeps many Veterans from tapping into a benefit they well earned by serving our country. The fact is elderly, disabled Veterans and their widows may very well qualify for large sums of money, but they have to apply for the funds. There are several Veteran pensions, but the pension designed to help elderly Veterans and widows pay for costly home health care or Assisted Living Facility care is called Pension with Aid and Attendance. It is actually two pensions in one. The two pensions combined can pay a veteran up to $1,674 per month and a widow can receive up to $960 per month. The amount one receives depends upon whether or not they are married, how much their medical expenses may be and their current financial and medical status. The pension is paid by check directly to the Veteran or widow every month as long as they meet the criteria.

The Aid and Attendance Pension is the government’s best kept secret. I cannot tell you how many seniors have told me that they called the Veterans’Administration and were actually told that this pension does not exist or that they do not qualify. For twelve years, I have assisted veterans and widows in obtaining these funds – they really do exist.

To get the maximum pension amount, a veteran must qualify medically and financially and must have served their country for at least one day during “War Time”. Also the Veteran must have been honorably discharged. Every case is considered individually. If a Veteran or Veteran Widow feels they may qualify, they can apply for the pension. The pension can take many months to actually be approved. The average waiting period is three to eight months. The first check will be retroactive to the date the application arrived at the Veterans’ Administration, therefore the first check may be for thousands of dollars. Subsequent checks will arrive monthly for the approved amount. This pension money can mean the difference between affording adequate care for an aging Veteran/ Widow or having no care at all.

As with any governmental program, success is all in the paperwork. The pension application is seven pages long and some of it is in essay form. It is the exact wording used in the essay areas that mean the difference between approval and denial. Also, the Veteran’s Administration does not tell Veterans about all the supporting documents that they would like to see. The better the medical and financial records, the better the chances are of approval. Including the right medical forms signed by a doctor is very important for approval. Also typical of governmental red tape is the frustrating lack of communication. Once the application is filed and in the process of being reviewed, it is nearly impossible to get an update or check on the status of the application.

In a perfect world, financial assistance for those who qualify should be easily accessible and easy to get. But the reality is that government agencies are inherently complicated and their application processes are never self explanatory or simple. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse and no one will tell you the rules. The rules are written somewhere, but the Veterans Administration is not allowed to give them to you. Seasoned Eldercare professionals can often navigate these processes for you. They may charge for their services, but to attempt to do it yourself and have your application denied, will cost much more money. The Veterans’ Administration supposedly employs staff to help Veterans and their Widows apply for these pensions for free, but it is these very people who have told so many seniors that they do not qualify, when in fact, they could qualify if they made one small change. Perhaps the Veteran’s Administration is afraid that if they made it easy for every Veteran to apply, the pension fund would go broke. Given that War Time includes the Gulf War Era which began in 1990 and has not ended yet, I anticipate the pension fund will one day be either broke or impossible to get. For now, the money is very much available and attainable.

Here are the Aid and Attendance eligibility criteria for the year 2005.
1) Veteran served in the Military for at least one day during War Time or had a spouse who served at that time. Spouse’s are people whom you never divorced.
2) Honorably Discharged from the Military.
3) Currently has medical or psychological condition which make the Veteran or Veteran widow dependent on the aid or assistance of a non- family member in order to meet their daily care needs or they reside in an Assisted Living Facility
( not a nursing home). This claim must be supported by physician signed forms and medical records.
4) Financial: Have assets in their own name below $80,000 (if married) or below $50,000 (if single). The car and house does not count as an asset. Annual income below $16,955 (if single) or $ 20,099 (if married) after all medical expenses such as Assisted Living fees, paid caregiver salary, medications, medical transportation/ supplies, certain housing expenses, etc.

In many cases, if a person has a paid care giver, such as a nurse’s aide, or they pay an Assisted Living Facility, those expenses impact so greatly on a person’s net income, that they will meet the criteria for the income level.
If a Veteran or Veteran Widow has cash assets above the limit, they are allowed to place those assets into certain investments in order to have them “sheltered”. This sheltering does not have a penalty or “look back period” associated with it. Proper asset sheltering for Aid and Attendance should be done under the supervision of an Eldercare professional or Attorney well versed in Medicaid planning because one could easily ruin the chances of ever getting Medicaid if the VA pension planning was done incorrectly.

With a little professional planning, many Veterans and Veteran Widows can receive pensions that make a significant difference in the amount of care they receive. After all, the reason for this particular pension is to assure that a Veteran or Veteran Widow does not live in a substandard environment in their old age. It takes a little work to apply for this pension, but anything worth having usually does.