Jump to content

Ask Your VA   Claims Questions | Read Current Posts 
Read VA Disability Claims Articles
 Search | View All Forums | Donate | Blogs | New Users | Rules 

  • homepage-banner-2024.png

  • donate-be-a-hero.png

Inheritance When You Are On A Va Disability Pension


augoldminer

Recommended Posts

I am a 60 year old veteran on a 90% VA disability pension and 10% SC and my father is in late stage Alzheimer.

When he passes how will any money or money from the sale of his property affect my disability pension

When he passes i as the his executor will have to sell his houses and property and divide the money 5 ways.

Plus i will have to find a place to live as i am care taking one of his homes and watching the other property right now.

I plan to buy a motor home to live in as i can not take cold weather or hot weather any more. and plan to fallow the weather.

I don't want to rent a place to live as i have had many problems with landlords and don't want to deal with them anymore. living in a motor home if i don't like where i am living its simple to move just load up and drive away.

Plus i have a number of friends that will give me a place to park in exchange for watching there property as a caretaker.

As far as i can tell my part of the inheritance will be about $20.000 to $30.000 due the the housing market.

Will this stop my pension till i use up the inheritance or how does that work i never have got a stright story on it.

I also plan to take some collage courses in gunsmithing and the motor home will allow me to travel to that part of the state to the collage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 5
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

  • HadIt.com Elder

You are really asking a couple of complicated questions.

In general, as I understand it, unless there is a specific exemption under the VA pension rules, the bequest can cause the VA to reduce your pension or eliminate it for the time it would take to equal the amount of the bequest. I'd also assume that there will be a significant amount of time involved in getting it reinstated.

Next, the unstated question was can this be avoided. I believe the answer might be yes. I can think of certain circumstances that might be useful, if they can be arranged some time before a bequest becomes effective.

If you look at the income statement you are required to send in to the VA, and the instructions, You will notice that some funds can be deducted from the income amount used to calculate or validate a pension.

It might be possible to setup something related to the bequest that would allow it to be offset.

Since the whole thing is intertwined with legalities, A visit to a lawyer that understands VA law is likely going to be required.

Not having gotten personally involved in the pension side of things, I really don't have any specific information/experience to give.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I checked around the web sites and came across this interesting article. Here's an extract from part of the article, and also added the link to the whole article. Hope this helps!

Why Is a Special Needs Trust Important? If you receive an outright inheritance from a friend or family member the inheritance could put you over the $80,000 asset limit. It is not necessary for your family to disinherit you, however, in order to protect your Pension benefits. If your family members provide for a special needs trust in their estate plan, your eligibility for Pension benefits will be protected.The trust would not be included with your other assets to determine if you are below the $80,000 asset limit but the trust will be there to supplement your needs.

Here's the link

The Voice - November 2007 - Vol. 1, Issue 4

Coot

!!!BROKEN ARROW!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HadIt.com Elder

You should check w/an atty just to confirm. I don't know you but I'd hate to see you lose out thru some erroneous info gotten here. jmo

pr

What i would inherit would not put me anywhere near $80,000 so i guess i would not be in to bad a shape.

And the home would be motor home and my truck for a car. So i would be alright there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I defiantly agree with pr! The article is FOI only. If I was in your shoes, I would also check it out to confirm!

Coot

!!!BROKEN ARROW!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Tell a friend

    Love HadIt.com’s VA Disability Community Vets helping Vets since 1997? Tell a friend!
  • Recent Achievements

    • RICHKAY earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • pacmanx1 earned a badge
      Great Content
    • czqiang1079 earned a badge
      First Post
    • Vicdamon12 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Panther8151 earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Our picks

    • Caluza Triangle defines what is necessary for service connection
      Caluza Triangle – Caluza vs Brown defined what is necessary for service connection. See COVA– CALUZA V. BROWN–TOTAL RECALL

      This has to be MEDICALLY Documented in your records:

      Current Diagnosis.   (No diagnosis, no Service Connection.)

      In-Service Event or Aggravation.
      Nexus (link- cause and effect- connection) or Doctor’s Statement close to: “The Veteran’s (current diagnosis) is at least as likely due to x Event in military service”
      • 0 replies
    • Do the sct codes help or hurt my disability rating 
    • VA has gotten away with (mis) interpreting their  ambigious, , vague regulations, then enforcing them willy nilly never in Veterans favor.  

      They justify all this to congress by calling themselves a "pro claimant Veteran friendly organization" who grants the benefit of the doubt to Veterans.  

      This is not true, 

      Proof:  

          About 80-90 percent of Veterans are initially denied by VA, pushing us into a massive backlog of appeals, or worse, sending impoverished Veterans "to the homeless streets" because  when they cant work, they can not keep their home.  I was one of those Veterans who they denied for a bogus reason:  "Its been too long since military service".  This is bogus because its not one of the criteria for service connection, but simply made up by VA.  And, I was a homeless Vet, albeit a short time,  mostly due to the kindness of strangers and friends. 

          Hadit would not be necessary if, indeed, VA gave Veterans the benefit of the doubt, and processed our claims efficiently and paid us promptly.  The VA is broken. 

          A huge percentage (nearly 100 percent) of Veterans who do get 100 percent, do so only after lengthy appeals.  I have answered questions for thousands of Veterans, and can only name ONE person who got their benefits correct on the first Regional Office decision.  All of the rest of us pretty much had lengthy frustrating appeals, mostly having to appeal multiple multiple times like I did. 

          I wish I know how VA gets away with lying to congress about how "VA is a claimant friendly system, where the Veteran is given the benefit of the doubt".   Then how come so many Veterans are homeless, and how come 22 Veterans take their life each day?  Va likes to blame the Veterans, not their system.   
    • Welcome to hadit!  

          There are certain rules about community care reimbursement, and I have no idea if you met them or not.  Try reading this:

      https://www.va.gov/resources/getting-emergency-care-at-non-va-facilities/

         However, (and I have no idea of knowing whether or not you would likely succeed) Im unsure of why you seem to be so adamant against getting an increase in disability compensation.  

         When I buy stuff, say at Kroger, or pay bills, I have never had anyone say, "Wait!  Is this money from disability compensation, or did you earn it working at a regular job?"  Not once.  Thus, if you did get an increase, likely you would have no trouble paying this with the increase compensation.  

          However, there are many false rumors out there that suggest if you apply for an increase, the VA will reduce your benefits instead.  

      That rumor is false but I do hear people tell Veterans that a lot.  There are strict rules VA has to reduce you and, NOT ONE of those rules have anything to do with applying for an increase.  

      Yes, the VA can reduce your benefits, but generally only when your condition has "actually improved" under ordinary conditions of life.  

          Unless you contacted the VA within 72 hours of your medical treatment, you may not be eligible for reimbursement, or at least that is how I read the link, I posted above. Here are SOME of the rules the VA must comply with in order to reduce your compensation benefits:

      https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/3.344

       
    • Good question.   

          Maybe I can clear it up.  

          The spouse is eligible for DIC if you die of a SC condition OR any condition if you are P and T for 10 years or more.  (my paraphrase).  

      More here:

      Source:

      https://www.va.gov/disability/dependency-indemnity-compensation/

      NOTE:   TO PROVE CAUSE OF DEATH WILL LIKELY REQUIRE AN AUTOPSY.  This means if you die of a SC condtion, your spouse would need to do an autopsy to prove cause of death to be from a SC condtiond.    If you were P and T for 10 full years, then the cause of death may not matter so much. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines and Terms of Use