The VA offers a variety of benefits for veterans who may need to transition into assisted living. These include access to health care and rehabilitation, as well as financial assistance for other senior living expenses. With so many different programs available, it can be hard to know where to start. This guide will help you understand the basics for veteran’s benefits at independent senior living in Spring, TX and how they might apply to your situation.
Categories To Determine Benefits
The VA uses four categories for benefits.
- Service-Connected – This type of service-connected disability is one that a veteran suffered during military service and is listed on their discharge papers. Examples include hearing loss from gunfire, loss of vision from explosion and burns from fire.
- Non-Service Connected – If you do not have a service-connected disability but are still eligible for benefits based on other factors like age or gender, your claim will be considered non-service connected.
- Special Compensation – Veterans who served before 1988 may be eligible for special compensation if they have certain disabilities that resulted in either amputation, blindness or permanent loss of use of both hands or feet; paraplegia; quadriplegia; double incontinence or total bladder control loss; amelogenesis imperfecta (inability to produce enamel) or any combination thereof.
- Dependency & Indemnity Compensation (DIC) – Dependents who lose someone due to their death while serving our country can apply for this type of support through the VA
Types of Benefits
Depending on your situation, there are many different types of benefits that you may be eligible for. If you’re a veteran or the family member of a veteran, you can apply for them at any time. To learn more about how to apply and how much they might provide, it’s best to talk with an attorney or counselor in your area.
There are three major types of benefits: professional medical care for veterans, education and vocational rehabilitation. All three types can be combined with other sources of income without affecting eligibility for Social Security or Medicare; however some conditions preclude certain benefits from being granted altogether.
Assisted Living With VA Benefits
In order to apply for any veterans’ benefits, you have to have “service-connected” conditions or injuries. Service-connected means that these conditions are related to the service that you performed while in the military or they were caused by an illness that developed while on active duty, even if it occurred years later. The VA uses four categories to determine disability benefits:
Compensable disabilities – These are disabilities that can be compensated by the VA and require medical evidence from a doctor with specific credentials (a licensed physician assistant may qualify). Compensation includes monthly payments and access to certain healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
Non-compensable disabilities – These don’t qualify for compensation because they aren’t considered serious enough by the VA, but they do qualify as mitigating circumstances when determining the amount of pension payments made based on your total disability rating percentage (TDRP).
Get Your Veteran Benefits
It can be difficult to know what benefits are available for elderly veterans, but it is important for you to explore every option. The VA offers many different types of compensation depending on your situation and the severity of your injuries or disabilities. There are also many other organizations that offer assistance with things like housing costs and medical expenses related to care. We hope our guide has been helpful in understanding some of these options so that you can make an informed decision about how best to approach this process! For more information on our retirement community, contact us today!
