Eligibility for Pensions and Aid and Attendance

The Veterans Pension program provides monthly payments to wartime Veterans who meet certain age or disability requirements, and who have income and net worth within certain limits.

To qualify for these benefits you must:

• Started Active Duty Service before September 8th, 1980 and have served for at least 90 days on active duty status, or
• Started Active Duty Service after September 7th, 1980, and have served for at least 24 months on active duty or the full period for which you were called or ordered to active duty, and
• Have served for at least one day during a qualifying period of war (See below), and
• Have received an honorable dicharge, and
• Be 65 or older, or be rated by the VA as totally disabled.

VA Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits provide monthly payments added to the amount of a monthly VA pension for qualified Veterans and survivors. If you need help with daily activities, or you’re housebound, you may qualify.

To qualify for Aid and Attendance a Veteran, or their single surviving spouse, must be eligible for a Veterans Pension and must meet at least one of the following requirements:

• You need another person to help you perform daily activities, like bathing, feeding, and dressing, or
• You have to stay in bed—or spend a large portion of the day in bed—because of illness, or
• You are a patient in a nursing home due to the loss of mental or physical abilities related to a disability, or
• Your eyesight is limited (even with glasses or contact lenses you have only 5/200 or less in both eyes; or concentric contraction of the visual field to 5 degrees or less).

A VA Survivors Pension offers monthly payments to qualified surviving spouses and unmarried dependent children of wartime Veterans who meet certain income and net worth limits set by Congress. If you haven’t remarried after the Veteran’s death, and if the deceased Veteran didn’t receive a dishonorable discharge, and their service meets at least one of the requirements listed below, you may be eligible for this benefit.

The Veteran must:

• Have entered active duty on or before September 7, 1980, and served at least 90 days on active military service, with at least 1 day during a covered wartime period, or
• Entered active duty after September 7, 1980, and served at least 24 months or the full period for which they were called or ordered to active duty (with some exceptions), with at least 1 day during a covered wartime period, or
• Was an officer and started on active duty after October 16, 1981, and hadn’t previously served on active duty for at least 24 months.

Watch this brief video from the Veteran Benefits Administration for more information on Aid and Attendance