For families who are struggling with the cost of Assisted Living, there is a little known benefit available to Qualified Veterans of WW2 or Korea. It is called the Aid & Attendance Pension Benefit. The money is income tax free, and there are some eligibility / qualifications that must be met.
Eligible / Qualified Vets, and/or Spouses, and/or Surviving Spouse - might be eligible for UP TO:
1) $998.00 per month for a Surviving Spouse; 2) $1556.00 per month for a Veteran (male or female); 3) $1842.00 per month for a couple.
Short & Quick: Eligibility Requirements are:
a) Veteran must have served at least 90 days of active duty, with at least one day served during a time of war;
b) Assets - each case is evaluated on an individual basis; it's best to work with an application processor (for a fee) who can advise / assist the family in structuring the assets; the VA will state that the max assets that can be owned is $80,000....but there are ways to work with this.
c) Financial Need: in general, the income must be less than the expense of caregiving;
d) Medical Diagnosis - there must be a clearly stated need for assistance in the Activities of Daily Living - i.e. bathing, dressing, bathroom; dementia or mental illness is also a medical need.
e) The Veteran must be at least 65 years of age.
Each of the qualifying conditions listed above does have some details - each situation must be evaluated individually.
You can go to the VA website to get some info - www.va.gov The benefit is called the Aid & Attendance Pension Benefit. It requires some searching around to find it. The time and effort is well worth it. If you get stuck, you can go to my website for a few links and more info: www.linkousgroupinc.com
The VA does have field personnel who assist in enrollment and explanation of the benefits, plus info on VA benefits overall. In California , they usually are in satellite offices throughout the county. If you can't locate one of these offices, you might consider using an application processor - the application usually gets processed and handled correctly the first time through, which cuts the approval time tremendously.
We use a law firm, for a fee, that gets excellent results. Applicants should be pre-qualified by a trained counselor. By going directly to the VA, you don't need to pay to apply for the benefit. But by using an application processor - It's the same as using a H & R Block tax preparer for your taxes - you can do it yourself, but you use them because they know the rules, it saves you time, and they can get it done correctly the first time.
Hope this helps someone.