By:
Thomas Day
See Page #1: Getting the
Government to Pay Family Members
Using
the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit:
A totally overlooked source of money to pay family caregivers to
provide care at home is the aid and Attendance Pension Benefit. This
money is available to veterans who served during a period of war.
Pension money is also available to the widows of these veterans. This
benefit, under the right circumstances, can provide up to $1,843 a
month in additional income to pay family members to provide care at
home.
It
also comes as a surprise to many people that about 33% of all seniors
could qualify for the aid and attendance benefit. That's how many
veterans or their surviving spouses there are in this country. Getting
the aid and attendance benefit to pay for family caregivers is not an
easy task. This is because there must be a caregiver contract in place
and services for care must be initiated and thoroughly documented
before application can be made. Getting these applications approved
requires using a consultant who understands the documentation
requirements. Very few people can do it on their own.
Using
Medicaid Spend down to Pay Family Caregivers:
In order to qualify for Medicaid nursing care, a person must spend his
or her cash assets down to less than $2,000. Instead of giving this
money to the nursing home and waiting for Medicaid to kick in, the
potential beneficiary can instead transfer this money to a child in
return for caregiver services. This is not considered a gift and if
done properly does not create a penalty for Medicaid eligibility. The
strategy also allows Medicaid to take over paying its portion of the
nursing home costs much sooner.
As with the caregiver contracts for VA benefits, an expert in this
area of Medicaid benefits is required in order to do it right. In
fact, the same type of caregiver agreements used for obtaining extra
income under the veterans benefit can also be used for Medicaid. A
consultant who is proficient in both the aid and attendance benefit
and Medicaid personal caregiver agreements can be of great service to
the community. This contracts’ consultant can help relieve a great
deal of caregiver stress by providing funds to help that caregiver
cope with personal financial pressures.
About the
Author:
The National Care Planning Council and its affiliated members are
dedicated to helping the American public recognize the need for long
term care planning and to helping implement that planning. Planning
for long term care is important. To learn about The National Care
Planning Council and long term care visit our website at
http://longtermcarelink.net
Article Source:
http://www.ArticleBiz.com
Webpage by Paul Susic MA Licensed
Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate
