Help For Housebound Wife

[knifestuff]

Pension is a benefit paid to wartime veterans who have limited or no income, and who are age 65 or older, or, if under 65, who are permanently and totally disabled. Veterans who are more seriously disabled may qualify for Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits. These are benefits that are paid in addition to the basic pension rate.

[knifestuff]

There are 3 levels of pension to assist needy vets/spouses--special pension, which then may be supplemented by Household or Aid and Attendance. Special pension provides the least amount of benefit, Household adds a little more, and Aid and Attendance is the highest level of benefit. Intro info from the VBA website:

• Pension is a benefit paid to wartime veterans who have limited or no income, and who are age 65 or older, or, if under 65, who are permanently and totally disabled. Veterans who are more seriously disabled may qualify for Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits. These are benefits that are paid in addition to the basic pension rate.
  
• Aid and Attendance (A&A) is a benefit paid in addition to monthly pension. This benefit may not be paid without eligibility to pension. A veteran may be eligible for A&A when:
  1. The veteran requires the aid of another person in order to perform personal functions required in everyday living, such as bathing, feeding, dressing, attending to the wants of nature, adjusting prosthetic devices, or protecting himself/herself from the hazards of his/her daily environment, OR,
     
  2. The veteran is bedridden, in that his/her disability or disabilities requires that he/she remain in bed apart from any prescribed course of convalescence or treatment, OR,
     
  3. The veteran is a patient in a nursing home due to mental or physical incapacity, OR,
     
  4. The veteran is blind, or so nearly blind as to have corrected visual acuity of 5/200 or less, in both eyes, or concentric contraction of the visual field to 5 degrees or less.
     

  [*]Housebound is paid in addition to monthly pension. Like A&A, Housebound benefits may not be paid without eligibility to pension. A veteran may be eligible for Housebound benefits when:

  1. The veteran has a single permanent disability evaluated as 100-percent disabling AND, due to such disability, he/she is permanently and substantially confined to his/her immediate premises, OR,
     
  2. The veteran has a single permanent disability evaluated as 100-percent disabling AND, another disability, or disabilities, evaluated as 60 percent or more disabling.
     

If someone is eeigible and needs this benefit, they should apply--it does take VA a while to process (naturally), but they'll pay retroactive to the date of claim, once the award is made. Just make sure the claimanty is eligible from both a finaincial and a medical perspective.

[Pete53]

Thanks Knife nice work