U.S. military veterans who need assistance with daily living activities like bathing, dressing and mobility, may qualify for a special long-term care benefit called Aid and Attendance. This tax-free VA benefit can help veterans and spouses pay for home care, board and care, assisted living and skilled nursing. Aid and Attendance for veterans is a reimbursement for care that does not need to be paid back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
War-time Service<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first requirement for the Aid and Attendance benefit is\nwar-time service. The veteran must have served 90 days of active duty with one\nday during an eligible period of war. Here are the war dates set by Congress:<\/p>\n\n\n\n World War II \u2013 December 7, 1941 to December 31, 1946<\/p>\n\n\n\n Korean Conflict \u2013 June 27, 1950 to January 31, 1955<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vietnam Era \u2013 February 28, 1961 to August 4, 1964 for\nveterans who served in Vietnam (boots on the ground) or on a ship off the coast of\nVietnam; August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975\nfor veterans who served in Vietnam, on a ship off the coast of Vietnam, or\nanyplace else in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gulf War \u2013 from August 2, 1990 to a date that will\neventually be set by law or presidential proclamation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Honorable Discharge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The veteran must also have received an honorable or anything\nother than dishonorable discharge. An honorable discharge means the veteran was\nreleased from military service after having satisfactorily completed their\nobligations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Veterans and their spouses may still be able to qualify for\nAid and Attendance if the veteran received a general discharge, other than\nhonorable discharge or, in some situations, a bad conduct discharge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Veterans who were dishonorably discharged from the military\nare not eligible for this benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Age<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To qualify for the benefit, the veteran must be 65 years of\nage or older. The spouse can be any age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marital Requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are no marital requirements for the veteran. A spouse\napplying for Aid and Attendance must have been married to the veteran at the\ntime of his or her passing and never remarried. Spouses who remarried another\nveteran may also be eligible for the benefit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Need of Care Requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Another eligibility requirement is needing help with two out\nof the five types of daily living activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the purposes of this claim, medication management,\ntransportation and meal preparation are not recognized by the VA as Activities\nof Daily Living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Income and Assets<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The VA also has very specific Aid and Attendance requirements regarding income and assets. To find out more about VA financial rules and regulations regarding Aid and Attendance claims, contact one of our Benefit Consultants today at (877) 427-8065.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aid and Attendance Benefit Amounts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are different benefit amounts for veterans and spouses\ndepending on their marital status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long-term Care Options<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Long-term care refers to both medical and non-medical\nservices for people with chronic diseases, illnesses and disabilities who can\nno longer care for themselves. The care can be provided at home or in a care\nfacility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Home care can be provided by a family member, friend or\nprofessional caregiver. The person providing the care does not have to be\nlicensed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Facility care includes board and care, assisted living and\nskilled nursing facility care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Board and care, also called residential care, refers to\nlicensed, 24-hour care homes with a small number of residents \u2013 usually 6 to\n12. Services include meals, help with\ndaily living activities like bathing, dressing, mobility and toileting, and\nmedication management. Board and Care costs range from $2,500 to $5,000 a month\non average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assisted living facilities are much larger, with hundreds of\nresidents living in individual rooms, small apartments or shared spaces.\nAssisted living facilities provide various levels of care depending on a\nperson\u2019s needs, including meals, medication management, personal care,\nhousekeeping, laundry, social activities and some medical services. Assisted\nliving facilities average $3,000 to $5,000 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A skilled nursing facility provides medical assistance in\naddition to help with personal care. A skilled nursing facility is staffed with\ntrained medical professionals, including at least one full-time registered\nnurse. Rooms are private or semi-private. A skilled nursing facility can cost\nup to $7,000 or more per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The VA\u2019s Aid and Attendance benefit can help veterans and\nspouses afford the personal care that they need. For home care, it is a way for\nveterans and spouses to reduce out-of-pocket care costs and remain at home longer.\nThe benefit can also help veterans and spouses transitioning into a care\nfacility remain private pay, with greater control over the quality of their\ncare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a 2018 study, there are over 9 million U.S.\nveterans living in the United States who are 65 years of age or older. Like\nmost seniors, many will end up needing some type of long-term care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you or a loved one are a veteran or spouse and need financial assistance to pay for long-term care, contact one of our Benefit Consultants at (877) 427-8065 for more information about how the benefit and claim process works, and what it takes to get an application approved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. military veterans who need assistance with daily living activities like bathing, dressing and mobility, may qualify for a special long-term care benefit called Aid and Attendance. This tax-free VA benefit can help veterans and spouses pay for home care, board and care, assisted living and skilled nursing. Aid and Attendance for veterans is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,162,158,260,23,124],"tags":[47,282,284,283],"class_list":["post-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aid-attendance","category-assisted-living","category-long-term-care","category-veterans-administration","category-veterans-aid","category-war-era-veterans","tag-aid-and-attendance","tag-aid-and-attendance-benefit","tag-aid-and-attendance-for-veterans","tag-veterans-aid-and-attendance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1123,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions\/1123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}