Veterans Aid & Attendance Pension: Do You Qualify?

There are certain benefits that go along with doing your part to defend our country, and one of these is the retirement pension that service members are entitled to after spending at least twenty years on active duty. However, there is another type of pension that many people qualify for without even knowing it called the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension.

This pension is available to veterans who can prove that they need assistance tending to their day to day personal needs, things like eating, dressing, and taking care of their daily medical routines. If you qualify, you can use your monthly Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension check to help to pay for nursing home or assisted living facility costs or cover care that you are receiving in your home.

One of the reasons why many veterans would assume that they don’t qualify for this pension without looking into it is because the length of service eligibility requirement is surprisingly minimal. One must have served for only ninety day with at least one of them being during a time of war to qualify for the Veterans A & A benefit. The only other requirement is financial. If your total assets exceed $80,000, you are ineligible, but your home and your vehicles are not included when you calculate the sum of your assets.

A single veteran who is eligible can receive as much as $1,632 every month, and this can really go a long way to defray your long term care costs. A married couple may be entitled to monthly payments as high as $1,949, and a surviving spouse who qualifies can receive as much as $1,055 per month.

If you think that you may qualify for the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension, you will have to obtain an Application for Pension or Compensation through the United States Veterans Benefits Administration.