Autumn 2026·8 min read·Abloom Senior Living

Using VA Aid and Attendance to help pay for care at home

What the benefit pays in 2026, who qualifies, and where East Metro families can get help filing.

The benefit families hear about

Someone probably mentioned that there is a VA benefit that helps pay for care at home, and that your father might qualify. Then you went looking and found page after page of companies offering to file the paperwork for a fee, several of them hinting that the benefit is hard to get without their help. The real rules do live on va.gov, spread across four or five pages that do not link to each other especially well.

So if you spent an evening reading and still could not tell whether your parent qualifies, that is because of how the rules are filed. Families tend to arrive at this question at about the point you have.

This article is general information from a care provider and not legal, financial, or medical advice.

What Aid and Attendance is

Aid and Attendance is an increase added on top of a VA pension for a veteran or a surviving spouse who needs help from another person with daily life. It is claimed as part of a pension application, so your parent has to qualify for the underlying pension first, which means wartime service, age or disability, and income and assets under the limits Congress sets.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, your parent meets the care requirement if, among other routes, "you need another person to help you perform daily activities, like bathing, feeding, and dressing," or if you have to spend a large portion of the day in bed because of illness.

If your father already draws a VA pension and has started needing a hand in the shower or with buttons and zippers, this is the thing to ask about.

What it pays this year

VA publishes a ceiling called the Maximum Annual Pension Rate. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the rates effective December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026 are $29,093 a year for a veteran with no dependents who qualifies for Aid and Attendance, and $34,488 for a veteran with one dependent. VA sets the rate for a surviving spouse with no dependents who qualifies for Aid and Attendance at $18,697 a year.

Those numbers are ceilings. What a household actually receives depends on its own income: "We'll base your payment amount on the difference between your income for VA purposes and a limit that Congress sets."

A veteran with $20,000 of countable income receives what is left after that income is subtracted from the $29,093 ceiling. If you stop there and conclude your father earns too much for this, you have read the page as written. The subtraction uses income for VA purposes, which for most households paying out of pocket for care sits lower than gross income.

How care costs change the math

VA subtracts certain costs before it counts a household's income. The rates page says that "Some expenses, like non-reimbursable medical expenses (medical expenses not covered by your insurance provider), may reduce your income for VA purposes." Ongoing in-home care paid out of pocket generally falls in that category.

There is a floor before the deduction starts. In VA's words: "If you have medical expenses, you may deduct only the amount that's above 5% of your MAPR amount ($872 for a Veteran with no spouse or child)."

So the arithmetic runs in three steps. You start with gross income, subtract the qualifying unreimbursed medical costs above that 5% floor, and whatever is left is income for VA purposes. The ceiling minus that figure is the annual benefit.

Paying for care therefore lowers countable income, sometimes enough to qualify a household that did not qualify before. A veteran with $28,000 in retirement income who is paying every month for help with bathing and medications may end up with a countable income well under the raw number. Whether a particular expense counts is VA's call, and no care agency can tell you in advance how an examiner will treat it. So if you ruled your father out on his gross income, run the number again with the care costs in it.

The three-year look-back

One rule applies to money moved in the three years before a claim is filed.

VA reviews transfers. Its pension guidance says: "When we receive a pension claim, we review the terms and conditions of any assets the Veteran may have transferred in the 3 years before filing the claim." Transfers made below fair market value, where the assets would have pushed the household over the limit, can bring "a penalty period of up to 5 years." VA puts the net worth limit at $163,699 from December 1, 2025 to November 30, 2026, calculated as assets and annual income together.

A family that shifts a parent's savings into a child's account in order to qualify can push eligibility out for years. The conversation is awkward at any point, and a transfer is harder to undo once it has happened. If money has already moved, say so at the start to whoever helps you file. They have seen it before, and knowing about it up front is what lets them tell you whether it affects anything in your parent's case.

Getting help filing, at no cost

Free accredited help with this claim is available in every Minnesota county, and you should not pay anyone for it.

The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs says it provides "100% free, accredited assistance" with federal veterans benefits, listing "No-cost Claims and Appeals for Federal VA and Social Security benefits" among its services. MDVA also describes County Veterans Service Officers as "the primary source of contact for all county benefits and services," and notes that a CVSO is located in each of Minnesota's counties.

For families in Woodbury, Cottage Grove, Stillwater, and the rest of the East Metro, that office is the Washington County Veterans Service Office, and if you are in Ramsey County, your own county's office does the same thing.

The claim will need VA Form 21-2680, the examination for permanent need for regular aid and attendance. A medical examiner completes the examination section, so your parent's physician or nurse practitioner is part of this from the beginning. Getting that appointment on the calendar is often the slowest step, so start on it early.

A County Veterans Service Officer will review your parent's situation at no cost, and you are not obligated to file anything afterward. You do not have to decide about care this week to make that call.

How the money reaches a care agency

Aid and Attendance is paid to the veteran or the surviving spouse, who then pays the care bill as they would have anyway. Agencies do not bill VA for Aid and Attendance. The monthly invoices from whoever you hire are what document the unreimbursed medical expenses behind the award, so keep them, and ask for itemized ones.

In practice this means care at home starts as private pay while a claim is pending. Abloom Senior Living provides in-home care across Washington County, billed privately or to a long-term care insurance policy. VA benefits are not accepted as payment. And if your parent's care will be funded through a Minnesota waiver such as Elderly Waiver or CADI, say so early: that is a different track, and you will get a straight answer and the name of someone who does take it.

It is usually easier to price the care first and the benefit second. Knowing what in-home care costs and how many hours a week your parent actually needs gives you the medical expense figure the VA calculation uses, and you will want that number however the claim turns out.

If the numbers still do not work

A claim can take months to decide, and the award may not cover the full week of hours your parent needs.

A few things usually remain on the table. Hours can be concentrated on the times of day when help matters most: the morning routine, the evening, and the hours when a working daughter cannot be there. Personal care and household support can be split so you are not paying for both at once. A long-term care insurance policy, if your parent bought one years ago, often pays for exactly these hours. And the other ways families pay for care at home sometimes combine better than any one of them does alone.

The same office, the same form and the same expense records apply if your parent later needs assisted living.

Where to start

If your parent is a veteran or a surviving spouse and has begun needing help with bathing, dressing, or medications, two things can happen this month before you decide anything about care. Ask the Washington County Veterans Service Office to review the claim. And get a clear picture of what the care would actually look like in the house, hour by hour.

Abloom Senior Living will come to you: a visit at your parent's home in Woodbury or anywhere in the East Metro, or a look at the small residential home in Woodbury if you want to see what the other option looks like. You can ask for either one here, with no obligation to book anything. If it turns out we are not the right fit for your family, we will tell you and point you toward who is.

Frequently asked questions

Does VA pay a home care agency directly through Aid and Attendance?

No. VA pays the benefit to the veteran or the surviving spouse, who then pays the care bill. Home care agencies do not bill VA for Aid and Attendance, and a company that tells you otherwise is describing something else.

Can my parent get Aid and Attendance if his income is too high?

Possibly. VA allows unreimbursed medical expenses, including ongoing in-home care, to reduce income for VA purposes, though only the portion above 5 percent of the Maximum Annual Pension Rate. A household that looks ineligible on gross income sometimes qualifies once care costs are counted. Only VA can decide a particular claim.

How long does an Aid and Attendance claim take?

VA does not publish a single timeline, and the wait varies with the completeness of the file. Plan to pay privately for care in the meantime, and keep every invoice.

Should we move money out of my mother's name before filing?

Talk to an accredited representative before doing anything. VA reviews asset transfers made in the three years before a claim and can apply a penalty period of up to five years for transfers below fair market value. A County Veterans Service Officer can look at the situation at no cost.

Who helps with this in Washington County?

The Washington County Veterans Service Office. The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs describes County Veterans Service Officers as the primary contact for county benefits and services and says its claims assistance is provided at no cost.

Sources

All field notes Arrange a visit