The Senior Veterans Service Alliance is kind to publish the following summary of benefits available to senior veterans through the Veterans Administration:
Non-Service Connected Disability Benefits
Veterans who served during a period of war or their surviving spouses may be eligible for additional income from the Department of Veterans Affairs to help pay for their long term care, out-of-pocket costs. These benefits are called Pension and Survivors Pension. They are also misnamed the “Aid and Attendance Benefit.”
Pension benefits are subject to income and asset restriction tests which VA scrutinizes closely during application and even years after veterans or their survivors are on claim. Pension and Survivors Pension represent only about 9% of all individuals who are on claim for all disability income categories.
Potential incomes up to the following upper limits are possible:
- Disabled veteran with spouse – $2,230 a month;
- Single disabled veteran – $1,881 a month;
- Single disabled surviving spouse – $1,209 a month;
- Healthy veteran with a disabled spouse – $1,477 a month
Service-Connected Disability Benefits
Service-connected disability benefits are available to any veteran or surviving spouse with no income or asset restriction tests. For these benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs does not care how much money these veterans or their survivors make or what their assets are. The benefits listed below represent the other 91% of veterans or survivors who are on claim for disability income.
- A surviving spouse could be receiving DIC at $1,319.04 a month or $1,599.13 a month based on the particulars of the veteran’s death. For a surviving spouse receiving DIC and receiving long term care services, VA will pay an additional $326.77 a month – bringing the total to $1,645.81 or $1,925.90 a month. Some surviving spouses should be receiving a monthly income from DIC but they are not. The Senior Veterans Service Alliance can help certain surviving spouses with applications for entitlement to DIC.
- A retired veteran on Disability Compensation at 60% or more for one rating or 70% or more combined rating – with at least one of the underlying ratings at 40% – can be paid at 100% for individual unemployability. Disability Compensation for a veteran at 60% pays $1,113.86 a month. A veteran receiving Compensation income for individual unemployability and paid at 100% will receive $3,057.13 a month. A senior veteran who is housebound and being paid at a 100% rating, due to individual unemployability, could apply for an additional income allowance for being housebound – bringing the total income to $3,421.90 a month.
- An older veteran receiving Disability Compensation at a 100% rating receives $3,057.13 a month. This 100% rated veteran who is receiving long term care services could qualify for additional income allowance for long-term care bringing total income to $3,804.04 a month.
Vietnam Era Veterans, Who with Aging, Have Developed Conditions Such As Diabetes, Heart Disease, Certain Forms of Cancer and Parkinson's Disease
A veteran, who is one of 2.2 million living veterans who served in-country in Vietnam, can get additional income. By showing evidence of one or more of the conditions above, a Vietnam veteran can receive additional income starting at $140.05 a month and going up to the possibility of $3,057 a month.
Older Single Veterans with Worsening Hearing Loss or Tinnitus
Service-connected hearing loss or tinnitus starts at $140.05 a month and goes up to the possibility of $3,057.13 a month for an older senior veteran who qualifies. A rating for hearing loss/tinnitus of 10% or more will entitle the veteran to Veterans Health Care which is entirely free except for inexpensive prescription drug costs. This person can then receive free hearing aids, free hearing aid batteries, free eyeglasses and substantial discounts on prescription drugs.
No comments:
Post a Comment