Veterans A & A: Changes in the Offing?

The Veterans Aid & Attendance special pension is a military benefit that will provide a monthly payment to eligible veterans who need living assistance. This can include in-home care or residence in a nursing home or assisted living community.

This program can certainly give qualified veterans a boost, though the monthly payout for a single veteran of $1704 per month is probably not going to fully cover the costs of a nursing home or assisted living community.

Veterans A & A is earmarked for former service members who served during a time of war who have some modicum of financial need. Therefore, there is an $80,000 upper resource limit that you must stay within if you want to be eligible. It should be noted that your home, your vehicle, and some of your belongings are exempt from this calculation.  They do not count toward this number.

Should you have countable assets that exceed $80,000 you could place resources into a trust or perhaps transfer assets to family members in an effort to qualify. You could do this on the day you submit your application if you want to as things stand right now.

However, a proposal has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would install a look-back period of three years that veterans who are applying for the Veterans Aid & Attendance pension must adhere to during the application process. This would prohibit applicants from divesting themselves of resources within three years of applying for the program.

Angling toward eligibility for programs that can help you pay for long-term care such as Veterans A & A and Medicaid takes careful and intelligent planning. The best way of going about it is with the assistance of a good Oklahoma City elder law attorney.

Larry Parman
Author, President and Founding Attorney
Parman & Easterday