July 6, 2017

Your Dad Passed Away, but Your Mom Needs Support: Some Veterans Pension Could Help

Your father served in the United States Army back in the Korean War. While he didn’t talk much about his time of service, you know he lost friends, but took a great deal of pride in his service. Since he passed away, your mother has been struggling with her own basic care and you wish you lived closer to help her out.

You know she needs home care support now.

Since your father was a veteran, does that mean your mother may qualify for some type of financial assistance to pay for home care services?

It could. The Aid and Attendance Benefit is a pension made available through the VA that provides financial support and assistance to veterans, their spouses and other dependents, and even widows of qualifying veterans. This pension is intended to be used for home care support services, so the person applying for it needs to be able to prove this level of care is needed right now.

There are certain criteria that need to be met.

Your father would need to have served a minimum of 90 days active duty during a time of official combat. This doesn’t mean he actually had to serve in a forward combat situation, though he may very well have done so during the Korean War. It simply means at least one day of his active duty service needs to have overlapped a time of official combat, as defined by Congress. The Korean War certainly falls into that category.

Your mother’s combined income and assets cannot exceed $119,000. A primary residence may not be included in that calculation. In other words, if your mother is financially stretched to her limits and can’t even consider paying for home care support on her own, she may qualify based on this provision.

Finally, your mother would need to prove that home care is necessary at this point in her life. That can easily be done if her primary care physician has already recommended it, but there are other ways she can go about proving she needs the assistance of another individual to help her with activities of daily life.

It’s highly recommended that your mother fill out this application as soon as possible because it can take many months for the approval process to be completed. In the meantime, she should contact an agency to talk about home care options.

If you or an aging loved one are considering Homecare Services in Elgin IL, please contact the caring staff at Big Hearts Home Care today!

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Matthew Calcagno

Founder at Big Hearts Home Care

Matthew is a graduate of Robert Morris College and is a U.S. Navy veteran.Matthew founded Big Hearts Home Care after over a decade at HP. Spending time volunteering at his grandparent’s senior center inspired him to make a bigger difference in the quality of care seniors receive.His grandfather whom turned 100 in 2015 is still a major inspiration to him in seeing that service is provided with a family focused touch.

It is his passion and commitment to providing quality service that has awarded Big Hearts Home Care as Provider of Choice and Employer of Choice in the Chicagoland area. He believes that being an independently owned and operated company allows him the flexibility to manage the business in a way that better serves the clients.