Using the Veterans Aid and Attendance Benefit to Enhance
Your Value for Existing Clients and Reach out to New Clients

Expand Your Practice by Becoming a Consultant for Aid and Attendance
The families of veterans are eager and willing to learn about benefits available for their loved ones who were in the service. Because the aid and attendance benefit is not well understood and because VA is not forthcoming in explaining how to receive a successful award for long term care recipients, a care provider or adviser who understands how to obtain the benefit can be in great demand.

Under the right circumstances about 30% of those people over the age of 65 in this country could qualify for this benefit. It is such a well-kept secret that only a fraction those who could be eligible are receiving it. A care provider or expert who understands the application process can provide additional value to his or her clients and become a valuable resource for new clients.

What Is Aid and Attendance?
The aid and attendance benefit is a little-known and underused disability income available to veterans who served during a period of war. The public knows this benefit from the media as "Aid and Attendance" but officially it is called pension (for living veterans) and death pension (for the surviving spouses of veterans).

All active-duty veterans who served at least 90 days during a period of war are eligible for this pension and the additional income from aid and attendance or housebound allowances. A single surviving spouse of such a veteran is also eligible.

Veterans' service would include World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam Conflict Era and the Gulf War Conflict. The surviving spouse and dependent children are also eligible for a lesser pension benefit and allowance.

All qualifying veteran applicants over the age of 65 are eligible for a benefit but must meet income and asset tests. Applicants under the age of 65 must be totally disabled to qualify as well as meeting income and asset tests. A surviving spouse can be any age and there is no need for disability.

Pension can provide an additional monthly income of up to $1,800 a month for a couple, $1,520 a month for a single veteran or $976 a month for a single surviving spouse of a veteran. Actual monthly amounts may be less than those above and depend on deductible medical expenses and income.

VA claims this benefit is only for low income veterans but a special provision in the way the benefit is calculated for long term care, could allow veteran households earning between $3,000 and $5,000 or more a month to qualify. This is because the majority of veteran households typically only qualify for pension when these households are incurring the high costs of home care, assisted living or nursing home care. Under certain conditions, VA considers these costs to be medical expenses and will deduct them to reduce countable income.

When applying for pension, specialists in the local Veterans Affairs Regional Office will calculate the benefit based on yearly income less unreimbursed medical expenses. The secret for obtaining long-term-care-related, successful pension awards is understanding what is required in the form of documentation and evidence to adjust income for future, annualized, unreimbursed medical expenses such as home care, assisted living or nursing home care. VA does not disclose this vitally important step on the application nor tell callers over the phone how to do it. One simply has to know how.

Lacking the proper knowledge, a claimant may submit an application without the necessary expense documentation and medical evidence required for a successful award. This can be a costly mistake. If the claim is denied, according to the VA rules, the claimant must wait a full year before applying again.

What Services Can the Consultant Offer?
Getting this benefit is a slow process even for those applicants who know what they are doing. On the other hand, for those who blindly submit a claim without the proper support documents, it can take 8 to 12 months for a decision from VA. Many long term care claimants will have household income that exceeds the MAPR. For these people it is absolutely critical to provide the right kind of cost-of-care evidence or the claim will be denied. If a claim is denied, the applicant must wait another full year before he or she can reapply.

Your job as a consultant is to make sure that applicants have the proper documentation for care services, that they have convincing medical evidence and that they understand the annualization of care costs being deducted from income. Since VA will not explain these necessary steps to applicants, this is advice that you can legitimately charge for.

To make sure that the process unfolds in a timely manner, all of the documentation should be in place before application is made. Without the advice of a consultant, this is rarely the case. Thus, your job is to make sure clients have the best chance of receiving a successful award based on accurate advice and follow-up with the application process.

Providing the advice, making sure the necessary documents have been obtained and helping reduce assets where necessary is 95% of the process. Filling out the form is a formality that anyone can do.

Charging a Fee
As a general rule, federal code prohibits anyone from charging a fee to help a veteran or the surviving spouse fill out a claim for veterans benefits. According to a recent letter from VA General Counsel to Congress, this is clarified to mean that someone may charge a fee for advice relating to the filing of a claim but not charge for the actual filing. Special rules will allow a disinterested third party to pay someone to file a claim but care providers, advisors or facilities that pay someone on behalf of a client or resident are clearly in violation of being a disinterested third party according to current VA rules.

The best strategy for the actual filing of a claim is to find a local service organization that trusts what you are doing and will file a claim based on your advice. It is recommended not to use a VA regional office for the filing of claims because public service people in these offices have little knowledge of how the claims process works for long term care costs and they have a tendency to discourage people from filing legitimate claims because of income that exceeds the benefit.

How to Become an Expert
VA does not issue instructions on how to obtain a successful award for long term care recipients. A phone call to a local regional office will not result in much help. Those who answer the phone or who help applicants are only trained to provide rudimentary information for filing a claim.

There are no courses or seminars that teach people how to do this.

Up until the publication of the National Care Planning Council's book "Veterans Aid and Attendance Benefit -- Long Term Care Benefits for Veterans" (Professional Edition) those wanting to become specialists in this areahad to do it by trial and error -- submitting claims and seeing what happened.

Using the information in this new book, anyone desiring to become a consultant can do so.

This publication is designed as a handbook for advisors or care providers. All veterans long term care benefits are described, but most of the manual is devoted to VA pension with "aid and attendance" or "housebound" allowance. Sample documents and claims forms for pension and other benefits are found in the book. Printable versions of these documents are also on the software CD included with the purchase.

The publisher of this book -- The National Care Planning Council -- and the editor -- Thomas Day -- have devoted much of the content to the pension application process. However, the book also covers other long term care benefits available to veterans that may be tied to those receiving pension. In addition, a chapter is devoted to veterans health benefits and related long term care services and another chapter is devoted to state veterans homes. Finally, a chapter also covers other disability and end-of-life veterans awards such as compensation, DIC and burial benefits.

Some claims may be denied because household assets are too high. The book devotes an entire chapter in the form of numerous case studies to demonstrate legal strategies for reducing assets in order to receive a successful award. The importance of dovetailing these strategies with appropriate Medicaid planning strategies is also addressed. In addition, software is included with the purchase to help the planner estimate pension benefits before and after asset reduction strategies. All necessary forms and supportive documents are included in the book and on the software CD.

A 28 page addendum with an explanatory forward is included with the book to clarify the issue of charging fees for helping someone with an application. In general, the adviser may charge for advice but not for filling out the form. Assisted living facilities, nursing homes and home care agencies that hire a third-party to file a claim for one of their clients or residents are potentially in violation of VA rules for charging fees. The National Care Planning Council recommends using a trusted and experienced veterans service organization for the actual filing process.

This book contains 443 pages and includes six chapters, two appendices, a form support section, a software CD and an addendum. Appendix I includes contact lists of veterans service organizations, state veterans homes, VA regional offices and VA medical centers and associated clinics. Appendix II contains 133 pages of citations from VA regulations and rules to help the planner with specific issues regarding application for pension. The addendum contains 28 pages of statutes and other support material relating to the charging of fees. The form support section contains necessary forms and documents used in the application process. The software CD contains planning sheets and benefit estimate software as well as copies of all pertinent documents used in the application process.

Click Here to Obtain Our Consultant's Handbook

Care Providers or Advisors Who Could Improve Their Practice and Reach out to New Clients by Offering Advice with Aid and Attendance.

Area Agencies on Aging
Certified Senior Advisors
Certified in Long Term Care
Eldercare or Long Term Care Planners
Retirement Planners
Funeral Planning
Estate Planning Attorneys
Elder Law Attorneys
Care Managers
Home Care Providers
Assisted Living Facilities
Relocation Specialist
Long Term Care Insurance Agents
Reverse Mortgage Specialists