Posts Tagged ‘Veterans’

All Dollar Amounts Are 2012 Amounts Based On December 1, 2011 Increases

Updated November, 2011

Are you a veteran or the widow of a veteran?

Do you need help covering long term care and medical expenses?

If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, then you may be eligible for as much as $2,019 a month. Read on . . .

Most people believe that veterans’ benefits are only for those who retired from the military or were injured during active duty. For years that was the common belief. Until recently. Buried beneath layers of bureaucratic and regulatory red tape there is another important benefit that many are just now discovering.

An Important Benefit That Most Veterans (and Fewer Widows) Know Nothing About

 

The Department of Veterans Affairs administers a variety of programs for veterans. Most people know about the VA Health System (hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics). Many are aware that the VA administers monetary programs such as educational benefits, home loan guaranties and compensation for service-connected injuries.

But a huge number of veterans (and widows of veterans) are simply unaware of a program under the VA heading of “Special Monthly Pension” (or SMP). Because they don’t know about SMP, or because they don’t know how to access it, millions of veterans and the widows of veterans who qualify will never see a dime.

This pamphlet explains the basics and will tell you whether you might qualify. If financially you do not qualify now, after the right planning you might qualify – so don’t give up! If physically and medically you do not qualify now, you may want to start planning now if you think you may need the help later.

Answer These Simple Questions

SMP is divided into two basic benefits: “Housebound” benefits and “Aid and Attendance” benefits. Take a moment to see if you might qualify.

STEP 1 First things first.  Make sure each of the following apply to you (or your veteran):

• The veteran must have served at least 90 days active duty, and just 1 of those days needs to have been in a War Time Period. The War Time Periods are:

WWII	12/7/1941 thru 12/31/1946
Korean Conflict	6/27/1950 thru 1/31/1955
Vietnam	8/5/1964 thru 5/7/1975 (back to -2/28/1962 if time served in Vietnam)
Gulf Wars	8/2/1990 – current

• The veteran must not have received a Dishonorable Discharge
• The veteran must be either disabled or over age 65

STEP 2 Next, determine if you might qualify for the higher benefit of Aid and Attendance. If any of the following apply, you might.

• Is the veteran, spouse or widow blind?
• Is the veteran, spouse or widow living in a nursing home or assisted living facility?
• Does the veteran, spouse or widow have some incapacity or limited ability that requires regular assistance from others in order to remain safe and clean?

STEP 3 If nothing in STEP 2 applies to the veteran, spouse or widow, the person may still qualify for the lower “Housebound” benefit if the person is essentially confined to the home and cannot leave without the assistance of others.

STEP 4 If STEP 1 and either STEP 2 or STEP 3 apply, determine if you might meet the income requirements. The veteran’s (or widow’s) family income, as adjusted, cannot exceed the following for Housebound benefits:

veteran only	$1,248
veteran with dependent	$1,564
widow(er) with no dependents	$837

For Aid and Attendance, the adjusted income limits are higher

veteran only	$1,703
veteran with dependent	$2,019
widow(er) with no dependents	$1,094

IMPORTANT: The income limits apply to adjusted income. Medical expenses not paid by insurance can reduce total gross income: doctor’s fees, dentist’s fees, prescription glasses, Medicare premiums, prescription drugs, nursing home expenses, home health care, and assisted living facility costs.

For example, a veteran with $2,000 monthly income, living in an assisted living facility or perhaps at home with the help of a home health agency will likely have no (zero) income after adjusting for expenses. He might qualify for the maximum $2,019.

There are plenty of planning options available if you have access to expert assistance.

STEP 5 If you might qualify under STEP 4, determine if you meet the asset/resource requirements. The VA uses a “gray” standard of whether a person has “sufficient means” to pay for his or her own care.

You will need to have less than “sufficient means”. Generally, for a married couple “sufficient means” is around $80,000 or more. A single person might be held to a lower standard. An older single person might be held to an even lower standard. A residence and an automobile are not counted as resources for determining asset levels.

Again, the good news is there are plenty of planning options available if you have expert guidance.

STEP 6 A properly prepared application with all supporting documents must be submitted to the VA.  By law, only the following can assist with an application

• A state veterans affairs office
• A veterans service organization (such as VFW)
• A licensed attorney
• Other certified advisor

While no one can charge a fee for actually preparing and submitting an application, an expert can charge a fee for assisting you to qualify for VA Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits. Very few persons understand the “ins and outs” of the process.

A BIG DANGER, BUT A BIG OPPORTUNITY Most veterans, their spouses or perhaps their widows have other concerns. These concerns may involve Medicaid planning and conserving (or stretching) assets for themselves and their families.

Without expert care, a veteran who applies for VA benefits with no thought to his or her overall situation might create incredible hardship and perhaps jeopardize other important nursing home or assisted living benefits.

On the other hand, in the hands of an expert, VA benefits might provide a tremendous boost when properly integrated with other planning options.

The bottom line: VA benefits can be a wonderful piece (one that has been missing) to a planning puzzle, but without expert help fitting the pieces together, putting the puzzle together might be impossible.

The time to start working on the puzzle is now. We can help you with that puzzle!

rev 11/2011

Coastal Senior is a monthly periodical published in Savannah, Georgia and circulated throughout the Georgia and South Carolina low country. Bob Mason is its legal columnist.

Big Veterans Benefit Often MIA

Time for a riddle. What do less than 25% of eligible people ever receive, can be worth up to $1,842 a month, and can provide an incredible benefit for a veteran (or a widow of one) who is homebound, in an assisted living facility or in a nursing home?

Answer: Aid and Attendance through the VA. Very few people know about this program, and those who do know about it often do not understand it. Improved Pension or “Aid & Attendance” might be available to boost monthly income by as much as another $1,842 for a veteran or $998 for the widow of a veteran.

Better known VA cash benefit programs are restricted to vets who were wounded or injured while serving in the armed forces. But Aid & Attendance benefits might be available to any veteran 65 years or older or his or her widow if the veteran served at least 90 days active duty, with 1 day of that 90 days during a VA defined period of hostilities.

There are financial qualification rules, and there also are physical qualification rules. To qualify physically, the veteran (or widow) must be physically homebound (not able to get out under her own power), or confined to a nursing home or assisted living facility.

The exact amount of the benefit depends upon monthly adjusted income. The benefit can never be more than the difference between $1,842 (or $998) and adjusted income. If monthly adjusted income is more than $1,842 (or $998) then there can be no benefit.

If you haven’t caught it already, the most important word in the preceding paragraph is this: ADJUSTED.

The income cap is properly calculated by adjusting monthly income downward for a variety of medical, insurance and long term care expenses, before determining the amount of benefit available.

For example, Kenny Kilroy entered the Army in 1945. He spent a few months in a replacement pool at Ft. Benning before the end of WWII. Discharged from the Army in 1946, Kenny returned to Savannah, and went to work as a realtor. During the early part of 2008 Kenny’s health declined some and he now lives in an assisted living facility in Savannah.

Kenny’s Social Security benefit pays $1,500 monthly, and he has a small qualified annuity that pays $300 month. $1,800 monthly will not cover the $3,000 monthly assisted living facility bill.

Time to panic? Not at all.

Kenny’s ADJUSTED income will be at least a negative $1,200 (and maybe more if he has other medical or health-related expenses). Under that scenario Kenny Kilroy should qualify for $1,842 in Aid & Attendance and he will have more than enough to cover the assisted living facility bill.

There are asset restrictions. As with Medicaid, some assets count, some assets don’t (the lists aren’t the same for Medicaid and Aid & Attendance). Generally speaking the applicant can’t have more than $80,000 in countable assets. It could well be less . . . the VA uses no “bright buy tadalafil line” amount.

Unlike Medicaid, it is fairly easy to “reconfigure” assets to qualify.

By law, the only people that can help compile an application for a veteran or a widow are:

A licensed attorney

A veterans service organization (such as the VFW, AmVets, American Legion), or

A state Department of Veterans Affairs office.

By law, it is illegal to charge a veteran for compiling and submitting an application.

On the other hand, it is not illegal to charge a veteran for the planning involved in qualifying for the benefit and implementing that plan.

Further, veterans, or the widows of veterans, do not live in a vacuum. They likely have other concerns. That is why it is important to seek the help of an advisor who understands this important benefit.

An advisor who may not know what he or she is doing may succeed in qualifying someone for VA benefits and hopelessly disqualify the veteran for Medicaid or other needed benefits in the process of qualifying for Aid & Attendance. This is tricky business.

Correctly approached, however, and correctly integrated as part of an overall plan, this particular VA benefit can be Heavy Artillery.