Veterans group warns of eligibility requirements

YOUNGSTOWN — Eligibility requirements for the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension, a tax-free allowance for wartime veterans and their surviving spouses, 65 and older, to help pay for senior living and home care, may become more stringent in 2017.

If the new requirements proposed by Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs, are enacted, many veterans now eligible would no longer qualify for the A&A Pension, said Kaylin Gilkey, senior manager of VeteranAid.org.

The A&A Pension, a Department of Veterans Affairs program often referred to as the “ghost benefit” because an estimated 70 percent of qualifying senior vets don’t know about it, can provide up to $2,120 a month for caregiving assistance to veterans and their husbands or wives, Gilkey said.

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