If you are a veteran who has served in the military, you may be eligible for benefits from the Department of Veteran Affairs or VA. There is usually some confusion about the term veteran as is applied by the VA. A common misconception is that the veteran must be retired or must have served a combat role to qualify. If you are a veteran wondering how VA benefits can help you get assisted living in Lely, FL, read on to learn more about this issue.
Who Qualifies for VA Benefits
To qualify for VA benefits, a soldier must have served in the military and must have received an honorable discharge. However, the VA has a benefits program known as Pension, which can apply for soldiers who are not yet retired from the military or those who do not have a disability from their service in the country. Depending on the circumstances, Pension can provide up to $2100 a month to help veterans pay for assisted living services. It can also be used for nursing home care.
Income And Asset Test For Pension Benefits
As part of the conditions for getting pension benefits, a veteran needs to go through an income and asset test. As the name suggests, an income test looks at the household’s monthly income. There is greater leeway when it comes to income levels as homes with incomes of up to $6000 still qualify for this benefit. The main obstacle for most households is when it comes to the assets test. Here, households that have assets that are over $40,000 may be disqualified from getting Pension benefits. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that assets that cannot be turned into cash easily, vehicles and personal property, are not counted when computing the total amount of assets that a household owns. Still, the threshold is low enough for many veteran families to find themselves disqualified for Pension benefits.
What Options Exist For Veterans
Even when households qualify for VA Pension, there is usually a gap between the cost of assisted living and the funds that are received from the VA. For many veterans, Medicaid often covers the difference between these costs, thus helping many veterans get the care that they need. In many cases, medicaid funds work better for this purpose than VA Pension funds, as they are typically more and have fewer conditions attached to them.
For example, it is common for veterans to give away assets in order to qualify for VA Pension. However, before doing this, it helps to get legal advice from attorneys who specialize in VA issues or medicaid issues. This is because options such as Medicaid may turn out to be much better than VA benefits, depending on circumstances.
Research Assisted Living Communities
Another way to make the income/cost disparities work is to look at the terms that are offered in different assisted living communities in Lely, FL. For example, features such as RentLock, which ensures that the veteran in question enjoys a fixed rent rate throughout their stay at the assisted retirement community, can help reduce costs.
