Michigan Elder Law Blog

Veterans who served on active duty during a period of war or their surviving spouses could be eligible for a little-known Department of Veterans Affairs income program called Veterans Pension. Pension is more popularly known in the media as the “aid and attendance benefit.” This additional income can pay up to $1,843 a month to help veteran households pay for the elder care costs of home care, assisted living or nursing home care. According to the national care planning Council, the veterans aid and attendance could be available to 33% of all seniors over 65 under the right circumstances. That’s how many veterans or their surviving spouses there are in this country.

There is an income and an asset test to qualify for Pension. A special provision in the way the pension benefit is calculated can allow households with income up to $5,000 or $6,000 a month to still qualify for this benefit. The difficulty, oftentimes, is qualifying under the asset test. Generally, couples’ households with assets in excess of $80,000 will not qualify for Pension and assets for a single veteran or a surviving spouse in excess of $50,000 may disqualify the single person household. However, there is no specific asset test and amounts less than those listed above may also disqualify the applicant. A personal residence, assets that cannot easily be turned into cash, a car and personal property are exempt from the asset test.

Assets that may disqualify an applicant can be given away or turned into income and there is no penalty for doing this as there would be with Medicaid. After making adjustments to assets to qualify, an application can be made and generally an award will be granted based on the reasonableness of new asset amounts.

Unfortunately, assets that are gifted within a five-year period starting from the date of the gift could disqualify someone applying for Medicaid. Oftentimes, veteran households receiving Pension will need Medicaid because the pension benefit does not cover the full cost of care as would Medicaid.

It is extremely important that anyone who planning to qualify for the aid and attendance benefit should also make provisions to avoid or reduce the penalty imposed through early gifting by Medicaid. Counsel from an elder law attorney should be obtained and the appropriate planning for Medicaid should be done. Christopher J. Berry, Esq. is a VA Accredited attorney and is a member of the National Academy of Elder Attorneys (NAELA). He focuses his law practice on assisting seniors with veterans benefits and Medicaid and can help with dovetail planning for the two benefits. Christopher J. Berry, Esq., can be reached at (248) 971-1700 or online at www.witzkeberry.com and www.michiganelderlawcenter.com.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Michigan Elder Law, Michigan Medicaid Planning, Michigan Veteran Benefits, nursing home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.