Veteran Benefits — Pension — Aid and Attendance — Little Known Benefit For Veterans


Veteran Benefits — Pension — Aid and Attendance — Little Known Benefit For Veterans

Veteran Benefits -- Pension -- Aid and Attendance -- Little Known Benefit For VeteransAlabama veterans deserve our gratitude and thanks for their service.

The Veterans Administration (VA) recognizes this by providing for the VA Pension or what is often known as the “Aid and Attendance” benefit.

This remarkable benefit can provide over $25,000 a year in tax free income to a veteran with one dependent — keep in mind a spouse is considered a dependent.

A surviving spouse of a war time veteran can receive over $13,000 a year in tax free benefits.

“So this sounds great — how come I’ve never heard of VA Aid & Attendance?”

Here’s the deal — this is a little known benefit and the VA, intentionally or unintentionally, often does things that cause otherwise qualified veterans to not even apply for this benefit.

I’m a lawyer and I didn’t know about this benefit.  I wish I had years ago as I could have helped friends and family members.  But I didn’t realize it existed.

Now for many years I have helped countless veterans and widows of veterans but it simply is not very well known.

For example, there is an asset limit and an income limit to qualify for this benefit.

Oftentimes the VA will tell people that they don’t qualify when they actually do.

For example, when looking at “income” you reduce the income by the “unreimbursed medical expenses” which includes assisted living charges and home health charges.

It can also include the money paid to family members (not the spouse) for helping care for the veteran or the surviving spouse of a veteran.

With assets, often the VA will tell folks that they don’t qualify when actually with some legal planning the veteran or surviving spouse would qualify for this amazing tax free benefit.

Finally, VA Aid and Attendance (VA Pension) is not well known because it is dwarfed in terms of money and recognition by the VA Disability (Compensation) which is for service related injuries.

“OK, this sounds interesting.  What are the qualifications for this VA Aid and Attendance Benefit?”

We’ll go over these in more detail but here is the quick list:

  1. Veteran is a war time veteran (World War II, Korean, Viet Nam, or Gulf War);
  2. 90 days of active duty (longer for Gulf War veterans);
  3. 1 day of active duty during a war time period but there is NO requirement that you were in a combat zone;
  4. Honorable discharge (or “better than dishonorable”);
  5. Asset limitation; and
  6. Income limitation.
We’ll go over each of these requirements in other articles, and you can find more information at AlabamaElderLawyer.com.

Contact Us.

If you think you qualify (or maybe your parents, friends, etc.), give us a call. 

You can give us a call at 1-205-879-2447.

Or you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you soon. 

You can also check out AlabamaElderLawyer.com, where we have more information on this VA benefit.

I look forward to chatting with you!

Have a great day.

-John G. Watts

 

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