How the VA determines monthly benefits

In this Elder Law Minute, from our Veterans Pension Series, Wes Coulson discusses how the VA determines monthly benefits for those who are eligible.

Transcript:

Hello, this is Wes Coulson with your Elder Law Minute, another in our series on veteran’s pension benefits. Today I’m going to talk about how the VA determines the monthly benefit amount for somebody who is found eligible. This is a situation in which I think a little bit of a visual aid is going to help. Because what the VA is going to do is compare two things – your income to your out-of-pocket medical and care expenses. Your monthly income is going to be a fixed amount, and what we’re going to find is that the VA is going to compare that to the maximum monthly benefit amount for the benefit that you would be eligible for, add a little bit of a notch amount. If those out-of-pocket medical and care expenses are more than that, you’re going to get the maximum benefit. If they are an amount less, that’s more than the monthly benefit amount, you won’t get benefits. If it’s somewhere in between there, you’re going to get some benefits. So if you’re here – a dollar – up to two, three, four, five – up to the maximum amount. Sometimes we can play with those numbers in various ways to get you a better result, and that’s an important part of the planning. Thanks!

For more from the Veterans Pension Benefits series, visit these articles:

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