Are Your Veterans Waiting for Aid and Attendance Benefits?

Aging military veterans can receive money in addition to their military pensions for a little-known program called “Aid and Attendance.” Veterans can qualify for the benefit if they served in the military during a period of war, meet the income requirements, and are unable to carry out certain activities of daily living.  Surviving spouses can also be eligible for the benefit. The veteran can be living in the community or a congregate setting and receive the benefit.

Unfortunately, LeadingAge New York has heard from some of our adult care facility and assisted living members that their residents have experiencing significant delays in the processing of applications for Aid and Attendance.  We are gathering more information about the issue for our advocacy purposes.  If you are working with veterans who are experiencing delays, it would be helpful to know:

• How many veterans are you working with who are awaiting the application being processed and benefit being paid out?
• How much money do you estimate is owed for each of those veterans?
• What are the impacts this is having on the veteran, or in the case of a congregate facility, on your operations?

We will use this information to support our advocacy efforts on behalf of our members and their veteran residents and families.  Click here for more information about the Aid and Attendance benefit.

Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8828