Using veterans benefits to help pay the cost of personal care / assisted living

If you are a wartime veteran or a surviving spouse of a wartime veteran, the Aid & Attendance pension benefit, through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, may help pay for assisted living.

What is the veterans aid and attendance pension benefit?

“Aid and Attendance” is a commonly used term for a little-known veterans’ disability income. The official title of this benefit is “Pension.” Evidence of this need for care must be certified by VA as a “rating.” With a rating, certain veterans or their surviving spouses can now qualify for Pension. Pension is also available to low income veteran households without a rating, but it is a lesser dollar amount. If a beneficiary residing in a Personal Care/ Assisted Living has been rated and there is a need for “aid and attendance”, VA will allow all reasonable costs to be counted as prospective, annualized medical expenses as long as some of those costs are paid for medical care.

Veterans aid and attendant benefit:

The current monthly Aid & Attendance rates may be as high as follows:

• Surviving Spouse in Need of Care $1,056
• Independent Veteran with Spouse in Need of Care $1,291
• Single Veteran in Need of Care $1,644
• Veteran in Need of Care with Spouse $1,949

Please contact our admissions director at either locations for further information on how to apply for this benefit.