How to Apply for the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit
Long Term Care Benefits for Veterans
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Total Males Females
World War II 20.5 21.0 12.0
Between World War II and the Korean Conflict 6.7 7.0 2.4
Korean Conflict 16.9 17.7 5.0
Between the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam Era 25.6 26.7 8.0
Vietnam Era 36.1 37.3 16.2
Post-Vietnam Era 27.9 26.3 53.8
Gulf War 13.9 12.4 37.0
Number of veterans† 25,095,000 23,629,800 1,465,200
† Estimates of number of veterans are rounded to the nearest hundred; percent estimates will not sum to 100 because veterans could indicate more than one period of service.
NOTE: This table excludes veterans who received a medical discharge from the National Guard or Reserves but never served on active duty.
VA Disability ProgramsTwo Important Disability ProgramsThe veterans benefits described in this section relate specifically to disability. However, for the most part, long term care is disability. As a general rule, most eligible veterans with long term care needs would qualify for these benefits from VA.Disability compensation -- a VA income benefit -- is money to compensate the veteran for loss of lifetime income due to disability incurred while in the service. The surviving spouse death benefit associated with compensation is based on the same principle. A large number of veterans may have service-connected disabilities; but, for whatever reason, never bothered to apply for compensation. It is not too late, and VA may accept a late application which will then give the veteran, not only more money, but possibly other VA long term care services as well.Pension is another disability income program. This benefit is available to active duty veterans who served at least 90 days during a period of war. A death benefit is also available to the surviving spouses of these veterans. Pension is probably the most underused and misunderstood long term care benefit for veterans. The misunderstanding comes about because pension is based on income. Many veterans or their surviving spouses are going to have incomes greater than the pension rate ceiling and as a result would normally never receive this disability benefit. A quirk in the way VA calculates pension can allow a veteran household to qualify even if family income exceeds the pension income test.
To explain this, VA, in calculating pension, allows the veteran to reduce the family income by the amount of recurring, future unreimbursed medical expenses. These are expenses that are paid out-of-pocket and not reimbursed by insurance or other government programs. As an example, suppose the pension income test for a veteran receiving care in a nursing home is $18,234 a year or less in income. If the veteran has an income of $30,000 a year, he or she would not normally qualify for pension. But the veteran can subtract from his income the $50,000 a year in nursing home costs. This new income is the income now used for the test above. This adjustment makes the new income for the income test negative, and the veteran would now qualify for an additional $18,234 a year from VA -- the maximum allowable.