Va Spouse's Death Benefit Income Treatment For "extra Help"

[JAB]

My mother resides in an assisted living facility and has Alzheimer's disease. She currently receives the VA death benefit pension plus A&A, for my deceased father's military service. I see that A&A is excluded when trying to qualify for SSA's "extra help" program, but I cannot find out if the death pension portion is counted as income. If so, this amount of income would disqualify her for extra help, when add to her Social Security check.

I am 100% SC and I'm paying for the biggest portion of her rent, so I don't want to miss out on any possible help with the cost of her prescription drugs. Thanks in advance, Glad2Bhere

[Berta]

I went over the SSA website and all I could find was this info:

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10525.pdf

Hopefully someone here will know the answer.

Perhaps it might be a good idea to call your local SSA office.

I had never heard of this program before.