Many aging veterans will want to remain at home as long as possible, even when their care needs increase. Aid and Attendance is a special VA benefit that can help veterans and spouses offset the cost of long-term care they need to continue living independently. Benefit amounts range from $1,228 per month for surviving spouses, up to $2,266 per month for a married veteran (or $3,032 if the veteran is married to another veteran). This is a tax-free reimbursement benefit that does not need to be paid back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
What does home care mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Home care refers to services that allow a veteran or spouse to live safely in their home. <\/strong>Veterans and spouses may be eligible for Aid and Attendance for home care services that provide assistance with daily living activities.A daily living activity is a basic self-care task. There are five types of daily living activities recognized by the VA \u2013 bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting\/incontinence and walking\/transferring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some of the specific tasks\ninvolved with each type of daily living activity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bathing – help adjusting the shower\nhead or water temperature, any assistance cleaning a part of the body, help\ngetting in or out of the tub\/shower, wash and\ndry completely, as well as reminders to bathe<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dressing \u2013 help picking out clothes,\ngetting clothes out of a dresser or closet, assistance putting clothes on or\ntaking them off, and help with buttons and\nzippers<\/p>\n\n\n\n Feeding \u2013 helping the veteran or\nspouse eat by transferring their food from plate to mouth, cutting food into bite sized pieces<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toileting (Incontinence) \u2013 help\ngetting to the bathroom, assistance on or off the toilet, and help needed with\nincontinence<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walking\/Transferring \u2013 moving from\nplace to place, moving to or from bed, chair, wheelchair or standing position,\nhelp up and down stairs, and assistance getting in or out of a vehicle<\/p>\n\n\n\n To qualify for the Aid and Attendance\nbenefit, the veteran or spouse must need help with at least two out of these\nfive types of tasks. This includes stand-by assistance, which means someone is\nthere to help just in case it is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meal preparation, transportation,\nhousekeeping, laundry, errands and medication management are not part of this\ngroup of activities, although many times a caregiver will also provide help in\nthese areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who provides the care?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Because daily living activities are\nconsidered non-medical tasks, home care can be provided by a family member\n(excluding a spouse) or friend, as well as a professional caregiver. The person\nproviding the care does not need to be licensed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other names for home caregivers\ninclude sitters, home health aides and companions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Home Care Agencies vs. Private\nCaregivers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When a veteran or spouse needs home\ncare, the caregiver is hired by the family. On average, a caregiver will cost\nbetween $20 and $30 per hour. Caregivers from home care agencies are usually\n20% to 30% more expensive than independent caregivers. Most agencies will\nconduct background checks on their employees. They will also have liability\ninsurance. Agencies will also have backup caregivers when an employee is\nunable to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Background checks for private\ncaregivers must be conducted by the family. Also, very few independent\ncaregivers carry their own liability insurance, and when a private caregiver\ncan\u2019t show up for work, finding a replacement on short notice can be extremely\ndifficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Common Misconceptions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Aid and Attendance benefit has\nbeen around for a long time, but it is not very well known or understood. \nMuch of Aid and Attendance information is incomplete and extremely\nconfusing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some common misconceptions\nabout benefit eligibility requirements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aid and Attendance Qualifications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several important Aid and\nAttendance requirements and qualifications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To start with, the veteran must have\nserved at least 90 days of active duty, with at least one day during an\neligible war-time period. The following are the war-time dates established by\nCongress for World War II, Korean Conflict and Vietnam veterans:<\/p>\n\n\n\n World War II – December 7, 1941 to\nDecember 31, 1946<\/p>\n\n\n\n Korean Conflict – June 27, 1950 to\nJanuary 31, 1955<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vietnam Era \u2013 February 28, 1961 to August 4, 1964 for veterans who served in Vietnam or on a ship of the coast of Vietnam. August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975 for veterans who served anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The veteran must also be at least 65\nyears of age to qualify for this benefit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surviving spouses (the spouse of a\ndeceased veteran) can qualify for Aid and Attendance if he or she was married\nto the veteran at the time of his or her passing and never remarried. A spouse\napplying for the benefit can be any age. The spouse must have been married to\nthe veteran for at least a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The VA also requires veterans and spouses to meet specific income and asset criteria. These requirements can be extremely complex, especially when assets are involved. We can help you with any questions you have regarding Aid and Attendance claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disabled Veterans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Veterans who are currently receiving\nVA disability compensation may also be eligible for Aid and Attendance\ndepending on their service-connected disability rating and payment amount.\nGenerally, the VA will pay the higher of\nthe two benefit amounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you or a loved one need financial assistance to help pay for home care? The VA\u2019s Aid and Attendance benefit is one of the best ways to help with long-term care at home. Getting a claim approved, however, can be difficult due to the complexity of the claim process. Give us a call today at 877-427-8065 to find out more<\/a> about Aid and Attendance and how to successfully navigate the system. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many aging veterans will want to remain at home as long as possible, even when their care needs increase. Aid and Attendance is a special VA benefit that can help veterans and spouses offset the cost of long-term care they need to continue living independently. Benefit amounts range from $1,228 per month for surviving spouses, up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,166,9,23],"tags":[285,135,286,168],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aid-attendance","category-home-care","category-veterans","category-veterans-aid","tag-financial-assistance-home-care","tag-va-home-care","tag-veterans-administration-home-care","tag-veterans-home-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927","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=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions\/1122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanveteransaid.com\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}