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Senior Concierge Services
Senior Concierge Services
Live Life Your Way at Home
Live Life Your Way at Home
NEWS & BLOGS
NEWS & BLOGS
Blog
About VA Benefits
Posted on May 24, 2015 at 8:32 PM |
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First, let me say thank you to all those individuals who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. I have both a grateful heart and much respect for Veteran's and their families. At SCS we proudly serve Veteran's and seek out ways to better educate individuals about benefits to which they may be entitled. To that end, I am posting the following information made available at Agingcare.com which is an outstanding resource for elder care and services. Applying for Veterans Benefits Can Be Confusing for
Caregivers "What are the VA benefits for
veterans and their caregivers, and how do I know if my loved one is
eligible?" Believe it or not, this is the most
common question caregivers ask Debbie Burak, founder of veteranaid.org, about
applying for veterans benefits. As the daughter of a WWII veteran, Burak is
intimately familiar with the challenges that caregivers face when dealing with
the VA. For nine years, she looked after parents who never had enough money to
pay for their care needs. It was only after years of scraping together every
dollar they could find that Burak discovered her parents had been entitled to
approximately $165,000 in VA benefits that they'd never received. "I'll never forget the
expression on Mom's face when she realized the money she desperately needed was
never going to come," Burak laments. The experience, as devastating as it
was, inspired her to advocate for aging and ailing veterans, and to create a
website that provides information for veterans and their caregivers. Confusion about applying for
veterans benefits Eligibility may be the key question
for many caregivers, but there are several other areas of confusion and
misinformation that could significantly impact the finances of people seeking
to obtain VA benefits: The VA doesn't recognize Power of
Attorney (POA): "A POA is worthless to the
VA," says Burak. "It has no standing; no merit." This revelation
often comes as a shock to caregivers who are used to hearing about the
necessity of getting a POA as part of planning ahead for elderly care.
In order to manage a legally incompetent veteran's financial affairs, an
individual must be officially appointed as the veteran's fiduciary, according to Burak. You can expedite a VA application: The VA has specific rules in place to expedite the
applications of people age 90 and older. If your loved one is in this age
group, make sure that the VA office that's handling their application is aware
of this. You don't have to be ill to get Aid
& Attendance: One little-known element of the VA
program is that when a veteran turns 65 they are considered 100 percent
disabled in the eyes of the VA. This means that they could be eligible for the
lowest level of Aid & Attendance assistance, even if they have no major
health conditions. Benefits get cut off when a veteran
dies: If a veteran dies before their
spouse, any Veteran Aid & Attendance Improved
Pension benefits being received by the couple will immediately
cease. "People are just devastated to learn this because they're grieving
and trying to make arrangements, and now they get to sit down and play the VA
shell game all over again," she says. The "shell game" Burak is
referring to is the one that requires the surviving spouse to submit a
completely new application to the VA to get their benefits reinstated. Along
with a death certificate, the surviving spouse (or their caregiver) must supply
additional information and documents, including the deceased spouse's discharge
papers; their marriage certificate; information regarding their income, assets
and expenses; a physician's statement that details the surviving spouse's
medical diagnosis and whether or not they can take care of themselves; and a
statement from their long-term care provider (assisted living community, home
care agency, etc.) that details their new cost of care information. Even if these
documents have already been submitted to the VA, they all must be re-sent after
a veteran dies. According to Burak, the average time to award a widow's pension
is 10-12 months after it's been submitted, so it's important to start this
process as soon as possible after a veteran passes. In recognition of Memorial Day, Jane |
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