By Dorie U . Sugay

Dorie Sugay is the Executive Director of Visiting Angels , a company that provides livingassistance services to seniors and adults-in-need who wish to stay in their own home or receive oneon-one care within a facility .

This article is for informational and educational purposes only . It was written independent of Visiting Angels .

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs census estimates , there are approximately 13 million Veterans and their single surviving spouses age 65 and older . Comparing this to a total of 41 million Americans 65 and older , Veterans and their single surviving spouses represent about

¹/³ of the senior population . According to the VA , about 42 % of all veterans are 65 and older . This percentage will continue to grow as the Vietnam Veterans reach 65 .

Facts You Should Know Senior veterans are typically in receipt of four cash income programs from the VA . Two of these programs – Pension and Death Pension – are paid to veterans and their surviving spouses who are nonservice-connected disabled . The other two of these programs - Compensation and Dependents Indemnity Compensation ( DIC ) - are paid to veterans or surviving spouses due to disability or death from service connection . The VA estimates handling about 4,501,200 cases in 2013 , and of those about 38 % or 1,693,200 beneficiaries are age 65 and older . It is important to note that of those 1.7 million beneficiaries 65 and older , only about 28 % or 517,900 beneficiaries will be receiving Pension or Death Pension . Also note that the number of surviving spouses receiving DIC is about 20 % more than those receiving Death Pension .

Why are these important ? Practitioners who work on educating seniors about Veterans benefits almost always direct their attention exclusively to Pension or Death Pension – which comprise only about 28 % of all VA beneficiaries ! In contrast , seniors receiving service-connected payments represent 72 % of those beneficiaries age 65 and over . Those seniors who could benefit from knowing more about Compensation and DIC and the Aid and Attendance Assistance are often completely ignored .

Pension and Death Pension Commonly called “ Aid and Attendance ,” these benefits provide cash payments to Veterans who served during a period of war or to their single surviving spouses . Pension helps to cover the cost of home care , assisted living and nursing home services . Pension is also available to Veterans or surviving spouses with very low income who do not have long-term care costs . Cash income payments from Pension range from about $ 700 a month to a little over $ 2,000 a month depending on the type of claim and the medical rating involved . Most people don ’ t even know of the existence of this benefit . VA does not advertise it , and , as such , many eligible people never apply . Visiting Angels in this area is the only agency approved by the VA to work with Veterans between South San Jose and North Salinas . Our Vet clients receive from 2-3 days ( 3 hours each ) of assistance and a few hours every other week for respite to help a caregiver spouse .

Disability Compensation Disability Compensation is a tax-free benefit paid to a veteran for a serviceconnected disability that happened as a result of active duty , active duty for training , inactive duty training or injury from VA healthcare . Cash income payments for Compensation range from a low of about $ 130 a month to a high of about $ 8,000 a month . Special benefits like grants for new automobiles or modifying existing automobiles , grants for constructing or modifying homes , clothing allowances and so on are payable for severe service-connected disabilities . An Aid and Attendance or Housebound Assistance Allowance in the form of Special Monthly Compensation ( SMC ) is available to the veteran who is 100 % disabled . In 2013 , a veteran assessed as 100 % disabled could receive a check for about $ 2,816 a month . And if the Veteran had a spouse , the amount could be as high as $ 2,974 a month . Higher amounts are possible if the aid and attendance involves certain severe disabilities .

This aid and attendance allowance is not an automatic benefit and most veterans don ’ t know about this special assistance and never apply for it . If the Veteran receiving

50

M O R G A N H I L L T O D A Y S U M M E R 2 0 1 4