Veterans Day falls on Wednesday, November 11, and San Diego County is home to a large military and veteran community. For many families here, saying thank you naturally leads to a practical question that rarely gets asked out loud: is there any help paying for care when a veteran, or a veteran’s spouse, needs it?
There may be. The benefit is called VA Aid and Attendance, and plenty of families have never heard of it.
What Aid and Attendance Is
VA Aid and Attendance is an added monthly payment on top of a VA pension, meant for eligible veterans and surviving spouses who need another person’s help with daily activities like bathing, dressing, and eating, who spend much of the day in bed because of illness, or who live in a nursing home because of a disability.
The key thing to know is that Aid and Attendance builds on the VA pension. Generally, a person has to qualify for the pension first. The payment goes to the veteran or surviving spouse, who can put it toward the cost of care.
Who May Qualify
Both veterans and surviving spouses can be eligible. Qualifying depends on the veteran’s service history, the household’s income and net worth, and the level of help needed with daily life. The VA’s pension eligibility page lays out the requirements in plain language.
We can’t tell anyone whether they qualify, and a brochure can’t either. That decision belongs to the VA, which is why it’s worth getting help from someone who does this every day.
How to Get Started
Applying generally involves a pension application along with a form your doctor completes describing the need for help. It helps to gather service records, income and asset information, and medical details before you begin.
Free help is available. A county Veterans Service Officer or another VA-accredited representative can walk you through the paperwork and tell you what to expect. You can find the VA’s overview on the Aid and Attendance page at VA.gov.
One more note: the VA adjusts payment rates every year. Rather than rely on a number you saw online, check the current veterans pension rates or survivors pension rates before you plan around them.
A Phone Call Worth Making
Consider a woman whose husband served during the Vietnam era and passed away several years ago. She’s been managing on her own, and her daughter has started researching Assisted Living. Neither of them knows that surviving spouses can apply for this benefit. A call to the county Veterans Service Officer takes one afternoon. It may or may not lead to a benefit, but it answers a question that would otherwise sit unanswered for years. This is a hypothetical, though many families find themselves in a similar spot.
Lining Up Care and Costs
While the VA sorts out eligibility, it helps to understand what care would look like. Our team at Westmont at San Miguel Ranch is happy to explain how Assisted Living and Memory Care work, what daily support involves, and what the costs are, so you can put that information next to whatever the VA decides. To everyone who has served, thank you.
Click here to learn about life at Westmont at San Miguel Ranch or call (619) 271-4385.
